Fade to Grey
by WildWelshWitch
Summary: -"Love doesn't die just because the heart stops beating." Ianto meets some curious people who could give him a second chance to be with Jack…WARNING: Contains mild spoilers for Children of The Earth, implications of gore and M/M situations. Please R
1. Don't Fear the Reaper

_**Author's Note:** This story was co-written with my friend, the much-talented Torchwood & Dr Who fan, and ever delightful Carolin. Please enjoy!_

* * *

It was grey when he opened his eyes; everything was monochromatic and seemed to be moving in slow motion.

He stood and tried to take in his surroundings and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Jack was lying beside him…but he was here…wasn't he? If he was here…whom was Jack lying beside?

What'd happened?!

"Jack!" he tried, "Jack! Can you hear me?!" but an attempt to touch the other man resulted in his hand passing through Jack's head and caused the world around him to ripple as if made of water; he drew back in horror.

What was this? What was going on? He had to think…what was the last thing he remembered?

He'd inhaled that poisoned air and Jack had held him, begged him not to go, to stay with him, vowed to always remember him as it got harder and harder for Ianto to keep his eyes open, the effects of the poison making him feel something akin to tiredness but stronger…

…and then he'd woken up in this strange monochrome world.

Wait…

Poison…

He'd breathed in poison to which there was no cure and…oh!

Oh no!

No! Please no!

'Not yet!' he said aloud to the grey world around him…And nearly jumped out of his, well, his skin when a hand was placed on his left shoulder and voice said: "I'm sorry" softly into his right ear.

He turned abruptly, ready to face The Reaper…and paused.

She was not what he was expecting. He wasn't sure what he WAS expecting, if anything, but this small, pale softly spoken young woman with silver-blue hair and a kindly, if slightly sad, smile was not it.

This was death, the end of all things, and to some, the beginning of whole new worlds to some, and the only thing consistent with the mythology of The Grim Reaper was the black hooded robe the young woman was wearing. Maybe he should have asked Jack, but maybe as Jack was eternally part of the world, he never got this far, never left the world for this grey place to know.

He certainly was not standing here beside him, although he, too, was very clearly dead.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked before she looked him up and down almost critically, "that is a very nice suit," she said finally, obviously trying to be jovial and lighten his very dark mood.

He was dead. 'Alright' didn't really seem to qualify when you're dead.

'Alright', he had previously considered, was generally the diametric opposite to "dead". He didn't have much space to consider this further when she mentioned the suit. It threw him off guard.

"Er, thank you?" He paused. "Is... is Jack?"

He paused again - he knew what would happen to Jack.

Jack would return. Jack would be back, and he, Ianto, wouldn't.

"Am I-? Well, I AM dead," he said finally, "so…what happens now?"'

"Well, first things first," the girl was suddenly brandishing a very ornate, very sharp looking Japanese sword, before he could even protest or utter a sound she swung it expertly and cut…something behind him.

Suddenly he felt…different.

Freer in a way

The girl nodded in professional satisfaction.

"Now, we do the introductions," she told him, "well, I introduce myself to you, I know who you are already. I am Rio Mortiis; I'm a Grim Reaper, note the dark cloak, hood and impressive Katana, yes? Very mythical; my Boss likes us to look the part."

'"B-boss?" Ianto had a small but growing suspicion that somewhere along the lines there was something more familiar to all this than would be apparent.

She had a boss.

She was in a job.

These were concepts that could be processed and related to, unlike little else about the current situation. Although she was probably now going to name God and dismantle that theory entirely. "You have a very nice sword, by the way."

It WAS a very nice sword, ornate, but rather than with the air of some ceremonial sword-shaped piece of steel, the air that this was primarily a very, very, VERY sharp piece of metal indeed.'

"Mm," the newly-introduced Rio nodded, "my Boss gave it to me; that'd be Azriel, the Angel of Death. You might've seen his picture around your world a lot; he has a real flair for the dramatic, the Big Boss lets him because he's such a faithful servant," she turned her attention to the grey scene playing out in the background, "Poor Jack," she said sadly, "I'll need to visit him later, when this is over, I think" it was clear she was thinking aloud with that last sentence rather than speaking to Ianto.

She turned back to him and smiled in a reassuring way, "Are you ready to go, Mr Jones?"

He could, at this moment, be honest and say no. He was going to have to leave Jack, leave his sister, his brother, his nephews, Gwen, and leave the world with monsters -aliens wasn't enough- monsters, from out of space holding the world to ransom, demanding the children of Earth. Unfortunately, it looked like he wasn't going to have much of a choice about it. "Not really, but I don't seem to have much of a choice. But I do have one... one last request?"

Rio paused, tilted her head as if listening to a voice only she could hear and then nodded, "OK."

"He probably can't feel this, but..." With that, he paused, knelt with the full realisation of finality, and left Jack one final kiss, quietly whispering "Goodbye, sir, Jack, I won't forget you in a thousand years either." and with a momentary pause to collect himself, stood up. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"That's cute," one corner of Rio's mouth curled slightly upwards in a tiny almost-smile, before she offered him one black-gloved hand, "come with me. You're a lucky man, you know, I'd be envious of you if it wasn't forbidden for me to be"

As she grasped his hand in her smaller one, he noticed it felt solid and real, unlike the now fading world around them, a slight movement of air gave him the slightly unsettling feeling of moving when he was quite certain they were standing still.

The world that reformed around them was…an office?

* * *

Azriel twiddled a pen between the fingers of his left hand for a moment as he waited, and then stood up as Rio and Ianto arrived. It was rare to meet a genuine hero, someone who had died doing something genuinely altruistic, too frequently those called heroes were just those looking to martyr themselves, or those who simply did not care for their own lives enough to balance them fairly against their cause, but here was someone with everything to live for who died trying to save the world, and save those he loved, with no intention to march into the line of fire in such a way.

Azriel had been watching.

He watched a lot of things.

It was his curse, to watch and yet be forbidden and unable to change the course of what he saw. Mortals lived, and mortals died, and that was the way of things

"Hello," he said calmly, "pleased to meet you."

"Hiya Boss Man," Rio greeted pleasantly whilst setting her sword into a handy umbrella stand with a slight 'clang' of metal against metal.

"Um…" Ianto suddenly felt intimidated here. Death wasn't supposed to be friendly, he…it…He wasn't supposed to have a fairly cheerful and tastefully decorated office.

The Grim Reaper was…well, wasn't he supposed to be a skeleton in a robe with tattered black-feathered wings?

But right now, Azriel appeared as simply a man in a crisp white shirt with a black tie held with an omega pin, he had a vaguely aquiline face and glossy black hair in a ponytail, and was sitting in a black leather chair of what, had circumstances differed, could have been mistaken for a lawyer's office.

It wasn't drama, but it was functional.

"Likewise," he said finally, wondering if he should offer his hand to shake the dark haired man's or if that would somehow count against him in some Heavenly Court

Azriel offered his hand, saving Ianto the mental dilemma;

"I know, I know," the Angel said, as if reading his thoughts, "no wings, no robe, and I'm supposed to be so dramatic-" He gave Rio a glance; the reaper girl held up her hands in a mild but silent defence of her casualness towards her 'employer's' eccentricities before Azriel turned his attention back to Ianto, "- but I find it impedes conversation sometimes."

Glancing between the employee and the employer for a few moments, Ianto cleared his throat, "So, what happens now? If you don't mind me asking?" the Welshman offered nervously

"Normally Rio would have already opened a door, and there would be a tunnel of light, or fire, or whatever else your afterlife consists of, and you would walk through, or in the case of those who are faced with fire, sometimes pushed through, and you would face whatever afterlife your actions in life had brought you. But this is a rare occasion, and so I would like to talk to you first. You _are_ allowed to sit, by the way."

Azriel himself sat first, as if to show that it was no breech of Heavenly etiquette to sit down.

"Firstly," the dark haired angel spoke once more, "I would like to thank you, not just for making my job easier, but for being a vital part of the team that despite great personal sacrifice, has done so much to pull humanity back from the kind of action that once drove me against mortals."

"I'm sorry…I did what?" Ianto asked, sitting down in a chair that hadn't been there a moment before, this was a lot to process in such a short space of time, he felt as if he had a headache but that couldn't be possible, right? You shouldn't be able to get headaches when you were dead.

"You're newly dead," Rio said, showing that she apparently had her Boss' rather creepy ability to read his mind, "so you're still reacting to circumstances like a living human" she explained in a helpful tone

"Oh, yes, sorry, I quite forgot. You have been dead all of about... 6 minutes and 27 seconds, but you died 29 days, 14 hours 53 minutes and 33 seconds ago, give or take a millisecond. Time here works... in irregular ways as our function necessitates a flow of time that is not parallel to that in other universes. I am pleased to inform you that the... "FourFiveSix" as you knew them, had their "ambassadors" killed and returned to their own planet without taking with them a single further human child, and thus, your "Torchwood" team succeeded, but unfortunately not without loss, and not without the world being a considerably altered place, but thankfully not a place where all civilisation has disintegrated."

"I've…I've been dead…for almost a month?!" THAT was a lot to take in and just made his 'headache' worse, "Jack…what…is he…will he be…?"

"He is alive, he is unharmed, and he is in mourning, but he is alive," Azriel reassured him, "Rio has expressed a desire to talk with him. Believe me, If I could click my fingers and undo your death, reunite you to face the world together and send back an asset to a planet that seems to lack in good men at this time, I would. But I am forbidden by Divine Rule, and even if I wasn't, I don't actually have that in my power. We are... celestial ushers, angels though we may be, and there are some things beyond even our power."

"He's alright…" Ianto sighed in relief, "he's alright" though he was saddened to hear that Jack was still in mourning over his death.

"No wonder you earned the ticket to The Penthouse," Rio said, sounding slightly impressed and just a tad envious, "so selfless…Boss, I hate to do this but I got to…well, you know…just check on him." she pointed towards the 'door' of Azriel's office before looking at Ianto once more, noting his nervousness at the thought of being all alone with Azriel before saying in a reassuring voice: "I promise I'll be right back. You won't know I've gone!"

"She can spend the next six years talking to Jack and still come back in 30 seconds, don't worry." Azriel flicked his pen over his hand again, this time catapulting it into his right hand with a flick of his little finger; Ianto watched the action.

"The man who had this pen was a poet, and he had it from his 12th birthday to the day he died," the dark haired angel said in a conversational tone, "which sadly wasn't very long, but he treasured it, and rather remarkably, offered it to me without any want of reward. He just wanted someone to look after it, and didn't think his family would understand what it meant. I don't think I do either, but I look after it all the same..." This appeared to be an idle musing, something that had been elicited by the gentle flicker of the light on the polished metal of the clip and gloss of the green enamel, but a musing that belied a great sorrow.

To someone who was a careful observer - and none of Azriel's clients usually were as they always had more pressing matters on their minds - it could be seen that in Azriel's office was a collection of objects that were the slow accumulation of other people's treasures, and that even the office itself was a remnant that had survived its world, even if only as a reconstitution of the ghost of a building.

Ianto took the time to look around the office, now that he theoretically had all the time in the world, in the universe to do so…

"You…you're nothing like you're described." He told Azriel honestly, "I never thought of Death as having an appreciation for…well, for things that matter to people no matter how small."

"That is because I am not death. Death is an abstract. I am Azriel. I am the Angel OF death, not the abstract itself. Death is a process, it is not animate and has no soul, but I, I suppose, am it's living representative. I, unfortunately, appreciate a lot of things. That is why I am what I am."

"Oh" was all he could think to respond, before something else came to mind; "When Rio said I'd earned 'a ticket to the Penthouse'…?"

"I think she is referring to The Elysian fields, the fields of Paradise."

"Heaven…I've earned my way into Heaven?………is there any coffee in this place?" he asked, suddenly in dire need of a large mug of pitch-black caffeine-filled coffee.

Azriel paused. "I don't know so, but I assume, as it is Heaven, that it has coffee. According the Norse it has a lot of mead. I know for a fact it has chocolate that does not fatten, I was once handed some by a rather gleeful servant of Raphael"

"…just plain black dark roast would do," Ianto mumbled, running his fingers through his hair, his mind turning inevitably back to Jack and his well-being.

TBC


	2. Pocket Full of Stars

He was tired, so very tired.

Always so tired

All he could think about as he walked down the corridor, his heavy boots making dull clanging sounds against the brushed metal of the floor, was getting to his quarters, washing off the filth he felt he'd accumulated from the day (because even here, there was sweat and dust to be washed away) and spending a few hours in complete oblivion.

The door hissed open after a quick palm-scan, revealing a fairly sparse room. A desk, a mirror, a chair a bed, a window; nothing out of the ordinary really; fairly standard for a ship of this size and make; certainly not a setting anyone in their right mind would associate with Captain Jack Harkness.

He liked it that way.

"You took your time," A voice said casually, "Do you know that in the 10 minutes it takes you to walk from your work station to your quarters, I can watch a universe die, be reborn and die again?"

From the corner of his eye, he saw the shape of a figure, he knew they were lying on his bed and purposely didn't turn to look at it. Some anger welled up inside of him.

His heart was still hurting and this person was making jokes at him!

"Oh great, now Death's assistant is talking like The Doctor," he snarled, though he knew she didn't really deserve his cattiness, but he just didn't want company right now, and she _**was**_ sounding awfully like the Doctor, someone he didn't want to be reminded of right now. "What do you want, and what are you doing in my room?"

Well, it wasn't _**his**_ room, but it was his personal space right now. He'd spent 8 months reliving his old hedonism and trying to drown pain in pleasure and it hadn't worked, and he just wanted to be alone.

"Oh come on, Jack," the voice's owner said in a playfully-pouting voice, "Don't be like that. You know why I'm here, Captain oh my captain"

"I'm sick of women, I'm sick of men, I'm sick of three-breasted androgens from Kalthutron 9. And you're _**married**_."

"True enough, but that doesn't stop me being concerned about you, which is why I'm here. You know I've always had a soft-spot for you…considering you were my first and everything" there was the brief sound of shifting cloth, then a hand on his shoulder, "Seriously Jack, I'm worried about you"

"I'll be fine, remember? I'm always fine."

That was half of the problem. He could march into Hell if he wanted, but it would be his friends who'd get burnt. He was a danger to those who got near him.

"Don't worry about me, it would be better for both of us".

"I've known you for a very long time, Jack Harkness; I can't help but worry about you," the hand moved from his should to wrap around his waist, soon followed by another…a light hug, "We're old friends after all."

Friends…

He didn't really feel like he deserved friends right now. Not after what he had done to his "friends".

He didn't squirm out of the hug, but he didn't respond much either. It was a state of being hugged rather than hugging and he was soon released from the hug as the voice & hands' owner walked around him into his line of vision.

Rio looked up at him, her silver-flecked black eyes looking into his own blue ones as, very slowly, she reached out a hand and touched his face, cupping his cheek in her palm, her thumb wiped slowly along the skin beneath his eye as if she were wiping away an invisible tear

"Ianto doesn't hate you for happened," she said softly, "no one hates you"

Jack gently batted her hand away.

"He's dead, it's a bit late for hatred."

And she was wrong; someone _did_ hate him.

He hated himself.

He hated himself for every stupid act of supposed heroism that had only put his friends in danger, and led him to destroy what he loved.

He paused.

She'd been talking to Ianto, which meant she'd been the one to collect his soul; which boiled down to the fact that meant she'd met him.

"What did he say?" He was eager, if not desperate to know what, if anything, had been said about him, even if it was in anger; any message at all from Ianto would've been a balm to his heart and soul right now.

"That he won't forget you in a thousand years," the reaper-girl told him earnestly, and then added, "He's worried about you. He misses you, you know. His questions were all about you and your wellbeing"

"Really?" He had expected some level of bitterness, or at least for Ianto to walk into the light never to return, fading into beautiful light, _beautiful_ light. He was surprised that Ianto could actually remember anything at all. Each time he died he couldn't remember much of being dead.

He remembered quite a lot of how he died - he tensed slightly at the memory of the explosion, the most recent event - but he remembered virtually nothing of death except a beautiful light in the darkness along with vague and jumbled memories of talking to Rio.

He'd talked to Rio when he was alive too, though always in the privacy of his office when they could both spare a few minutes, which helped slightly, (they'd been going through the cycle of his dying and coming back to life together for quite awhile now. He'd been her first assignment as a Grim Reaper) though she staunchly refused to give him details of the world of the dead.

"Really," the reaper nodded slowly, "Love doesn't die just because the heart stops beating. You know that, Jack."

Jack was comfortable with the idea of other worlds far across the galaxies, innumerable civilisations spread through the multiverse, shining like jewels in the dark, but the enormity of the realisation that he had a soul, of KNOWING that death was not the end - and not just in the sense that death for him was a temporary affair - was still something that he struggled with.

Yes, he knew that Rio was right.

This really did not help.

Ianto was dead.

Long dead.

Several months' dead.

He was, he hoped, glorying somewhere in the midst of that beautiful light, enjoying whatever it was that lay beyond it.

And he, Jack, was here, on a space cruiser orbiting a distant sun, spending his days overseeing the operations and maintenance of the engines that powered the ship and filling in mindless reports that seemingly had no purpose beyond mindless busywork, adding a monotonous quality to the vastness of space until he found something more interesting…and there was no bridging the gap between him and Ianto, ever.

He couldn't die and Ianto couldn't live.

If anything, knowing Rio was right just made things worse.

"Call a doctor, call a nurse, Jack is crazy and getting worse," Rio taunted slightly as she noted his unhappy look before tugging him gently but firmly by the arm, bringing down to sit beside her on his bunk, she sat with her knees folded up towards her chin, he sat normally, legs over the edge of the bunk.

"Still hurts?" she asked sympathetically, "right here, correct?" she put her hand directly over his heart, leaving it there for a few seconds longer than was probably polite, feeling his heartbeat as if it were the most fascinating thing in the universe

"Rio..." He objected mildly to being called crazy, it wasn't true, if anything he was remarkably composed emotionally, considering all that he'd lived through, but he didn't get much time to dwell before Rio changed tack again.

He looked back into Rio's eyes, hardly bearing to be touched, but at the same time, part of him longed for the contact.

"Yes". He replied with a rare and quiet honesty. "And I think it always will."

Rio went deathly quiet, which was not hard for her as she was already dead and, technically, wasn't even in the room with him but in this case it meant that she was thinking about something.

"What if…?" she said suddenly in an 'I think I'm on to something' tone

"What if what?"

"What if…" she looked at him then jumped to her feet; "gotta go!"

And just like that, she was gone. No puff of smoke, no dramatics, just gone

"Rio!" But it was too late; she was gone.

Ianto had said something about him acting like this not long before he... well... and now Jack could see what he had meant, and felt a pang of guilt.

He lay back on his bed and stared into nowhere.

Eternity is a dark and lonely place.

TBC


	3. Bargaining & Acceptance

_**Author's Note:**__ I'll admit that I was floored by the response this story's had over the last few days! Really! _

_So, for you lovely people, an extra long chapter!_

* * *

Azriel sipped from a rather elegant plain off-white squared coffee mug. One thing about being the Archangel of Death was a certain degree of what could be called miraculous powers or magic, or highly advanced science, depending on your viewpoint, and so now they both had coffee.

"Dark enough?" he asked Ianto. Azriel's coffee was so dark it could probably be considered a miniature singularity, sucking light into it never to return.

Ianto's was at strength that was not likely to kill him a second time.

"This is perfect," Ianto said, taking a long drink; it was comforting to find that coffee was the same on this side, if a little better, "thank you. So…what would I do in Heaven? As an example?"

"I'm not actually sure. I've... never lived there, so I wouldn't know. I hear there are excellent concerts, after all, Composer's Heaven and Raphael's lot. All the time in the world to do the things you enjoy, talk to people you haven't seen, people you would have like to have meet"

Ianto considered this in silence for a few moments (vaguely wondering if those moments were actually years or millennia), "Is there James Bond movies? Can it be like home?" thinking that maybe it was possible to have an approximation of Jack to keep him company…like some kind of stuffed toy he could hold if he did get lonely

"I honestly don't know, as I say, I have never been there. I am a liminal creature, I exist between worlds; all angels are, although the loyal were rewarded with seats in the Golden City. As for The Disloyal... well, I got off lucky."

"You fell?" he was honestly surprised, "I had no idea…I never heard anything like that before; there's no literature on earth that says that."

"I fell. Or rather, I stumbled. As such, I am now The Angel of Death, doomed to watch mortals at their best and at their worst until the End of All Things"

"…That's a punishment and a half…almost like Jack"

Azriel paused, and gave a momentary dark look. The man meant no offence, he could have no understanding of what it was like to be Death personified, and how it turned the double edged sword of immortality into a pure curse. At least Jack was allowed to try and make things around him turn out for the best.

He, as the Angel of Death, was forced to watch them turn out for the worst innumerable times over. He, despite, his power, was not allowed to alter the path of a nuclear bomb, or halt a train from annihilating a small child, he was not allowed to resurrect the needlessly murdered, the mothers who died in childbirth, the men who went to their graves with precious secrets that could send hope to millions. Azriel was only allowed to watch, and to reap.

"Yes, it is a punishment, but I have given up questioning its justness. It just is; it is my existence now. I am what I am and I must live with that."

As he spoke he absently rubbed his back. Dying as a human, the one time he'd made himself so as an experiment, had been a terrible thing. And Jack... Jack had faced that so many times.

Once, someone had stitched a bomb into his stomach having already shot him twice and then filled a room with concrete... Maybe Ianto had it right about Jack's "punishment" more than he realised.

Ianto was about to speak but the 'door' to Azriel's office burst open, loudly banging against the wall, almost hard enough to make a dent in the wall (if said wall had been made of brick & mortar anyway)

"OBJECTION!" Rio yelled; pointing at her boss and holding a pose similar to that lawyer game she enjoyed, she looked rather like an avenging angel of the Old Testament.

Azriel blinked.

"Rio... this is not a courthouse, and if it were I would expect you to show those present more respe... oh." He stopped mid-tirade as he realised she was indulging in some deserved silliness and gave a rather jovial smile." What, my honourable friend, do you object to, exactly?"

"We can't send Ianto to Heaven, Boss Man! It's just…wrong" his employee said seriously, lowering her arm back to her side, "I just…I saw Jack…He's not good"

"It's... wrong... to send someone to HEAVEN?" Azriel looked askance at her, "Heaven; land of milk, honey and fat-free chocolate, Paradise, the Elysian fields... where all is love, peace and harmony... This is BAD?" Azriel didn't quite understand.

It wasn't anger, just complete confusion as Azriel had spent near an eternity wishing to pass through those gates, and here was someone telling him that going there was a bad idea.

"But it can't be called Heaven if the person you love isn't there with you, right?"

Ianto watched this exchange, feeling partly stunned and a bit annoyed that they were talking about him as if he wasn't there

"Rio, can I have a word with you in private?" Azriel decided that he didn't like how this was going but he didn't want to discuss this in front of Ianto.

"I…but…" Rio began, then bowed her head subserviently, "Yes…I'm sorry…"

Rio had been doing this job a long time, and had the unfortunate trait of becoming emotionally involved sometimes. In a living human doing most normal human jobs, this would be commendable, but she was a Reaper now, and that called for a level of emotional distance bordering on the psychopathic.

It was not a nice thing to impose on a human, but there again, that is why the job was offered as an alternative to purgatory or even Hell. It wasn't supposed to be nice, it was supposed to be a way of working off one's sins.

Azriel could understand why Rio did what she did. He had done it too, struggled actually, longer than she had. This is one of the reasons it was such a lonely existence - Reapers can only really be friends with other Reapers, and some angels, anything else becomes a liability to one's sanity.

"I'm very sorry Ianto, can we have a moment?" Azriel had completely misread Rio as she walked in the room and he didn't want Ianto to be faced with Rio trying to persuade him not to go to Heaven. The man deserved to rest in peace.

Ianto nodded and wondered what on Earth was going on as he watched the Angel of Death lead his employee out into the void beyond the door by her arm.

* * *

"Boss," Rio almost-whined in the privacy of the endless grey void, "I'm not trying to deny him Heaven, I'm really not. I'm really just trying to…I don't know. I just don't think that either of them would be happy apart."

'We can't bring him back, Rio, you know that as well as I do, and to leave him as a ghost where he would never feel the warmth of a hug or the tenderness of a kiss, and where it would be ages before he grew the strength to be seen or heard... It would be worse than unfair. It is one thing to resolve unfinished business before moving on, and another to remain liminal for eternity to watch the one you love from a distance as they inevitably move on in their immortal lives."

"I wasn't suggesting he be a ghost…"

Azriel look at her questioningly. If she wasn't suggesting making Ianto a ghost then she had to be suggesting…no, she wouldn't…she couldn't possibly be suggesting…

"You cannot be suggesting...I do not run a rescue home for souls that do not fit into the system, Rio! And have you, in the heat of the moment, forgotten exactly what it is we _do_? We watch and we reap, _**WATCH**_, Rio. We know what is going to happen and we are not allowed to intervene. And it's hard, you know it's hard because of what you're trying to do right now."

"But Boss-!" she began, then bit her lip before continuing, "Yes, I sympathise with Jack; that's because we're similar. We both lost the people we loved in life through a meaningless accident; and we're not welcome in His house, we never even made it past the doorstep…and that aside, I can feel that being apart is killing both Jack and Ianto… that sadness would only taint Ianto's Heaven"

"Heaven is incorruptible."

But she was right; he _**knew**_ that she was right, but not necessarily in the way she meant. Most mortals would eventually be reunited with their lovers in death, unless one of the pair committed some terrible sin and died unredeemed and the other didn't (though in truth, there were far fewer unforgivable sins than many claimed)

Jack was now immortal.

It was not really surprising as there was something about Jack that continually pushed him out of any system that tried to contain him. He operated outside the laws of government and the laws of space-time; it was inevitable he would end up outside of the laws of the spirit world too.

But this meant he and Ianto would never be together again.

Unless Ianto, too, became outside of the system

"Just…offer Ianto the option," Rio said, bowing her head gently, "please Boss.

He would lose nothing by trying; unlike the others and I he has no penance to work off, he'd be free to leave, to claim his place in Paradise, at any given time. You know that."

"Rio, it doesn't quite... work like that. Every employee has to be paid, and if that payment is not Paradise because the employee has already earned it, then he can earn no wages. And seeing Jack once in a while isn't fair pay for what we do, it's just... going home at the end of the metaphysical day. It is what differentiates employment from slavery. This not simply a case of morality but of Karma and we must maintain the balance."

"I hate that you're so freaking wise sometimes, Boss Man…isn't there any other option aside from the promise of heaven?"

"I'm not wise, I'm just terribly old."

"And yet you don't look a day over 6 thousand…but truly, isn't there anything we could offer to maintain balance on his behalf?"

Azriel paused.

They really didn't have much to offer.

The job came with the powers required - the power to materialise and dematerialise at will, the power to travel through time and space through the void, the Weapons, the wings... Azriel did not have much to give that Ianto wouldn't get anyway.

He had been somehow granted the ability to let people work off their sins, in the same way he was now spending eternity earning his chair in the Council of Archangels, but he had lost the trust of the Divine in going against The Big Boss all those aeons ago, and that had damaged his connection to the divine, and thus his angelic powers.

Ianto already had Paradise and Jack's heart; there wasn't really anything comparable to offer. He would have to earn money like a mortal employee, get a weekly (well "weekly" for as much as weeks existed in the void) paycheck. It was about the only thing he could think of.

"We could just pay him money?" It was more of a desperate suggestion than a definite idea.

Money didn't seem to be a sensible payment. How could the dead have a credit card? And what would they buy? The dead do not need sustenance or shelter, let alone a car or jewellery. Mind you, Azriel had noticed that his reapers and the souls they collected like to be well dressed according to their tastes.

Azriel began very thoughtfully: "He does like his suits, he... could buy a lot of those."

It was absurd.

"I... I can't think of anything sensible, Rio, I suppose he could have normal angelic wings... actually, there is... no, it probably... I don't have the authority."

Azriel paused once more - he was about to suggest something he really didn't have the authority to suggest at all.

"He could earn being a full angel. He might even be able to get a cushy job working in Raphael's department. But the only way he could do that is if he wasn't deliberately striving for it. He could never know it was a possibility. Being transformed is an Act of God, and He tends to only reward genuine altruism. If Ianto works for a reward, he won't be rewarded, because it would be out of selfish desire. If Ianto works out of service to others, he might. _Might_."

Rio considered this quietly, biting down gently on her thumbnail with her front teeth. "He could work for you…if you say you need more help gathering souls. He'd be doing purely to help, not to earn his way to heaven"

"I am forbidden from lying, as you know, but I am not forbidden from missing out inconvenient truths, too, as you unfortunately also know - I'm still sorry about having done that, you understand - and I could just say... the bits he needs to know. "

"Then…then you'll do it? You'll help them stay together?" Rio looked up at him with a hopeful smile, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet

"If I do this... well, he's _**your**_ recruit so _**you**_ train him;" Azriel was feeling very apprehensive. He was either going to be in trouble of Biblical proportions or lauded for doing something Very Good, and right now, he wasn't sure which.

"Yes sir!" she saluted him…then all but knocked him over in a hug, "you won't regret this, Boss Man! I promise you! I even take back every bad word I ever said about you in the early minutes of my own training!"

Azriel sighed and looked at the door. It was odd, it was just floating in the Void; grey in front of it, grey behind, you could walk all around it, and it lead wherever it needed to.

Right now he hoped it leaded to his office, and not a much... warmer... destination.

(Heaven - Where being fired was taken literally!)

"Come on Boss, let's tell him!" Rio could act amazingly child-like at times; it was somewhat infectious.

* * *

Ianto blinked at the two beings as they re-entered the office, from his point of view it'd been just about less than half a second since they'd left

Rio looked awfully pleased with herself but seemed to be trying to tone it down.

Azriel looked grave. He still wasn't entirely happy with Rio's suggestion.

"What's going on?" he asked, half afraid of the answer. Had there been some kind of Heavenly cock-up and really he was being sent to…somewhere less appealing that Heaven?

"Ri- I mean, _**I **_wish to make you an offer. There will be absolutely no negative consequences if you refuse. The choice is completely yours."

Azriel was hoping that Ianto would refuse; silently praying he would refuse.

Being a reaper was a punishment duty. It was _his_ punishment, Rio's way of working off the debt created by her suicide and all those small errs and strays people make in life, and it was not the rest of eternity in Elysia playing cricket and going for a row on the river or whatever it is people do there.

"Offer? What kind of offer?"

"You can move on, go to Elysia, spend the rest of eternity having fun, doing all sorts of wondrous things, socialising with the Glorious Dead, living in a gilded palace in the land of Peace and Love, and generally enjoying yourself with whatever wonders go on in there - "

Azriel hoped there was cricket. He'd gained a strange fondness for cricket; it managed to be competitive yet sporting...

"Or you can work with us. I'm offering you a job as a Reaper. The hours are long, the work is Grim, but you will get to see Jack and you can have a new physical body. Our work is... Not pleasant. We are reapers. We are the witnesses to all manners of tragedies, and a few good acts of true heroism. We see mortals at their best and at their worst. We deal with all sentient mortal species, and we operate outside of time and space so the hours are infinite and yet momentary, and there are two rules: you Reap everybody and you don't interfere. You will know in advance when and where people will die, and often how, but you are completely and utterly forbidden to do anything to prevent it unless you are given a specific order to do so, and that never happens because it's almost always a task for either Uriel's or Michael's departments rather than mine.

You might know in advance when and where your sister dies, or Gwen dies, or your nephews, but even then, you cannot interfere. We are Reapers, we Watch, and we Reap."

Ianto considered this…this was a big decision…it all hinged on one fact for him.

"If I take this job…could I…will I be…am I allowed to be with Jack?" he asked finally

"On occasions, yes. Rio is married and has a son, posthumously, but she can explain to you the difficulties of having a relationship while also being dead and a reaper. May I make it very clear this job is no fun at all, and you can go to Heaven, proper actual Paradise, if you turn it down? And, if you're doing this because of Jack, make sure it is for HIS benefit, not your own, because trust me, he'll be the one benefiting, not you. Reaping is terrible work."

"…I get to be with Jack…" he ran his fingers through his hair again; he could be with Jack, he'd get to have something similar to his life back…

Wait…

"What happens if I start this job, find I don't enjoy it, that Jack & I aren't happy together, do I lose my chance at Heaven eternally?"

Azriel twitched ever so slightly. "I will read the statutes on that."

One of the things adding to the effect of Azriel's office belonging to a lawyer were the ranks of rather officious and expensive looking tomes ranked behind him, and for a change, they were what they appeared, or at least some of them were, as there was at least one rank of Books of Law, but unlike most lawyers, or even theologians, these were the Laws of The Universe, and they were not dictated by men or angels, they were simply the Way Things Are, the immutable facts of the universe. Afterlives were not a matter of some divine judge sitting over a record of sins; they were a matter of karma, of positive and negative energy, of good and evil deeds.

Azriel took a large, leather-bound book from the shelf, it's language so ancient that humanity had forgotten its existence, and read swiftly but carefully before, finally…

"Yes, well, as long as you commit no unforgivable sins between now and the point you resign your position here it carries on as if you were alive. Your afterlife is not fixed until you are through the final gate, and even then, I'm not sure how things work. As I have said before, I have not been to Heaven."

"This is something new," Rio told him, "It's not often people choose to stay and be a reaper when they have a free ticket to Heaven. There are rules for reapers though, along with 'no interfering'…you are not allowed to make any contact with your family or friends, not even through a Ouija board, though dreams seem to be acceptable for some reason."

"Jack is an exception from the rules," Azriel added, "not because he cannot die, but because he HAS died, and he already knows we exist. He seems to operate outside all the rules as it is; he is an anomaly in all aspects of existence. And so, in a way, are we. You are only allowed to talk to those who have died, and Jack has died several times so you are allowed to contact him."

Ianto blinked a few times as he tried to digest all of this information.

On the one hand…no contact with his sister…then again; he hadn't had much contact with her in the first place, she'd complained about that…

On the other…he got to be with Jack, even if it wasn't all the time…

…

"I accept you offer," he said finally, after what, to those in the office, was about 10 minutes, but in the world outside could be 10 years for all he knew.

Azriel sagged slightly, but tried his best to remain outwardly optimistic. The man was a fool. He had turned down Heaven for what felt like an extension of Hell, willingly, and having had it made very clear that job was not a brilliant prospect. If he wasn't a fool, he was insane, but whatever he was, he was now Rio's responsibility, as this had been her idea, but ultimately she was his responsibility, so he would probably end up taking the flack in the end if this all went hideously wrong.

The Angel of Death produced a contract, and handed it and the poet's pen to Ianto.

"You will need to sign here - it is a contract which says you will do the Reaper duties, and stick to The Rules and in return you are granted the Reaper's powers and weapon. Feel free to read it and sign at your leisure, as we really do have all of eternity."

He took the pen and did, very carefully; scan the contract, meticulously reading all of the small print (because he was THAT retentive and/or paranoid) before he singed it, careful not to get any inkblots on the paper.

"I have a few questions about…well, about myself…"

"I'll answer those for you," Rio nodded, "I've been doing this a long time…well, a long time from my point of view…with the Boss' leave, of course?" she gave Azriel a respectful look and nod, acknowledging that this was HIS department after all, his word was law here

"By all means. Ianto, Rio will be teaching you about the afterlife as a Reaper. Rio, be patient with Ianto, and Ianto, pay close attention, and I advise you take notes." Azriel noted, with some vague satisfaction, that he had at least returned the pen. "Here, take these..."

The angel reached back up to the shelf, and produced a slim, black leather bound journal, with an omega and crossed scythes embossed into the front - Azriel's sense of drama and tradition, as he could have willed the notebook to be virtually anything in this place - and then took a rather ordinary looking stainless-steel ball-point from his desk.

On first inspection, one would guess a Parker, until one realised the arrow was a feather, and the "P" on the top of the cap another omega.

"And don't lose the pen. I hate making those, I always get it wrong and get ink everywhere."

Ianto couldn't suppress a small smile as he took the items from Azriel. "Thank you, Sir," he said politely and even bowed a little, "I'll take good care of them. You have my word"

He found it amusing that an angel had trouble creating something as simple as a pen…but then again, only The Big Boss reputedly had the ability to effortlessly create something from nothing

"What do I do now?" he asked, looking between Azriel and Rio, "where should I-?"

"You could take him back to Avalon with you, Rio" Azriel said, by way of answer before once again turning his attention to his newest employee; "It's a restful place. I always take a week there when something bad happens, very calm atmosphere, peaceful sort of city. It also has excellent coffee houses, and the best cricket green on the planet."

Rio nodded, "You can come and stay with me; until you're ready to work by yourself anyway. My husband won't mind anyway," she smiled, "It's a big house and we've lots of room."

"How do we get there?"

"I'll transport you with me this time, tomorrow you learn to do it yourself" and so saying, she grabbed his hand, "Boss," she said turning to Azriel, "Thank you. I mean it."

Azriel mouthed: "on your head be this!" silently as Ianto couldn't see.

'Got it' she mouthed back and blew him a kiss in parting.

TBC


	4. Welcome to Avalon

_**Author's Note:**_ Avalon was the brainchild of my delightful co-auhor, Carolin. We've been setting our RPG's there for a long time now, so don't worry if you don't know some of the character's we mention, I'll explain at the end of the chapter.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who's put us on story-alert and left us such nice reviews. We really appreciate all your support and kind words.

Enough from me, let's get to what you came here for. Enjoy!

* * *

Avalon was an Elvin city run by Wood Elves, and thus it was grown rather than built, with trees trained to be the main supporting beams of often palatial buildings, and what was constructed was intricately carved wood so often covered in creepers that it was hard to distinguish what had grown and what was made.

But this was not the most remarkable feature of Avalon.

Avalon was an island, completely encircled by a river, and within the river was an enormous hedge as tall as an average tree, but dense thorns, barberries, brambles, hawthorn, briar roses, and all about 10 meters wide. It was also vaguely sentient, having absorbed millennia of magic.

"Home, Sweet Home," Rio murmured with a happy little sigh, "I like here so much better than London," she looked to Ianto, "Not feeling dizzy, are you? It takes some people that way the first time"

Ianto wobbled slightly and tried to stagger in an approximately straight line. "I think I need to sit down."

"Come on, big man," obligingly she wrapped an arm around his waist, letting him lean on her as she lead him to a bench in the shade beside a small but so very elegant fountain and sat him down with care, "better?"

"Much. Now where do I go for a good cup of coffee around here?"

"Plenty of places, half of the people here run solely on caffeine," she laughed slightly, "I'm starting to believe my husband does! But to the point, there's a good place not too far, near the library."

"What's the betting this place has a tourist information desk, and I bet it's going to have those little black and gold signs about not standing on the lawn? It feels like a museum in here."

"I felt that too when I first came here, you get used to it. It's almost better than a human city in some respects, in others…it's exactly the same" Rio stood and offered a hand, "Let's get you some coffee, Big Boss knows I could use some myself. What a day!"

"Are there extraterrestrials I've come across before here or something?"

He had guessed from the rather unique architecture and the fact that all the lettering was in a strange half-Arabic half-Uncial text that this place wasn't human. It didn't feel human. It was strange. It really did feel like a museum of some sort, especially one of those "living history" places where everything seem frozen in some anachronistic time, the place felt restful and peaceful yes, but there was something slightly claustrophobic, something that felt PRESERVED about the place. It was like a tropical rain-forest in that there were trees in all seasonal stages simultaneously, but the weather felt like late spring or early summer back in the UK, and the whole place seemed... unnatural was not the right word, it felt deeply NATURAL, just, not running according to normal physics.

And everything was ornate, every single thing, from the elegant curves of the lampposts with their stained-glass bells, to the pattern of stone slabs around the fountain. Even the dustbins were ornate. He could see strange elegant people of uncertain gender in ornate clothes, glittering slightly in the balmy sun, all with long hair, all tall, and all of great beauty. They looked relatively human from this distance, just very, very beautiful humans.

"What, exactly, is this place. Is this like in Arthurian myths?"

"It's Avalon, it's the home of the elf people. This is…not the earth you or I know. This is called 'New Earth' or simply 'Terra'. There are beings on this world that you'd never imagine…" she paused thoughtfully, "actually, you were Torchwood, you probably CAN imagine"

Just as Rio said that, the shadow of a dragon in flight passed them, relatively high above, but it was still enough to make the beautiful people dart into cover.

"And there are dragons... Dragons."

"Oh?" the reaper-girl looked upwards, delicately shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, "Oh yes…the dragons colonise nearby, mostly in Wales, I think they like the hills and greenery there"

"We're near Wales? I thought you said we were on Terra... "

"We are…" Rio confirmed, "It's a complex story, my husband knows more since he's a native here…haven't you seen the dragons around Wales?"

"Do you mean MY Wales? Or this Wales...?"

He figured that there was a New Wales here in much the same spirit as New South Wales in Australia, and that beings of some sort from his world had colonised this planet.

"Yes! Sorry," Rio rubbed the back of her head, "I get confused still, so used to travelling around…OK, there SHOULD be dragons in your Wales, and they're native there, right?"

"I've never heard of any dragons, I'm sure we'd be the ones dealing with them if there were. Are you sure you haven't got the planets mixed up?"

"No I'm pretty certain…Oh, here we are!" the scent of coffee suddenly hit them and Rio ground to a sudden stop, inhaling as if the scent were catnip.

Ianto's first note in the new black book was: "Tell Jack that there are dragons in my Wales, and that there's another Wales on a planet called "Terra" - re: rift."

"Come on, this is the place…the scenery alone is worth it," she gestured to the street they were on, "How do you take yours?"

But Ianto wasn't paying attention.

They'd just turned into a grand vista, a perfectly straight road that seemed to be more a half-mile long open-air mosaic floor than a road - something rare here it seemed, as all the paths were bark-chippings - with an avenue of trees down each side and flower beds down the middle, with the grandest of buildings down either side, spires of tree and glass - or was it crystal? - reaching hundreds of feet into the sky, vines trailing amongst tiers of balconies, flowers in bloom everywhere. It looked like the hanging gardens of Babylon.

"This place is beautiful,"

"I know," Rio said with a small smile, before she tugged his arm gently, "I'll give you the fifty pence tour later if you want but now is the time for coffee, before the afternoon rush."

"Coffee - yes." He followed Rio in, taking every opportunity he got to look at the fact that this place was one vast work of art.

Even the interior of the coffee shop was amazingly beautiful, all wood and glass/crystal and shining silver.

A few patrons, more of the very beautiful inhabitants he supposed, spared them a bored glance before going back to their conversations and caffeine.

"Uppity buggers," Rio mumbled, folding her arms almost protectively across her front – she'd neglected to mention that most pure-blooded elves within Avalon would hold them in distain simply for being human-shaped.; though being reapers, they weren't quite as low as a normal human.

Somewhere in the cafe, a particularly observant and unusually short (well, shorter) member of the beautiful people packed up her coffee, finished talking to the other tall blonde and stunning - although no more stunning than all the other beautiful people - person she was talking to, and hurried off in the direction of the library, grinning smugly under her deep green eyes.

Unaware, the two Reapers continued chatting amiably, even as Rio ordered the coffees (black and 2 sugar for her, white no sugar for him) and led him to a small table in a corner, but right beside the window overlooking the street.

"So," she said, wrapping her hands around her cup, "any questions? Ask away"

"How do they get the trees to grow like that? It must take centuries to grow a small building, let alone things like that!" He pointed at the tall tower above the Elder's Council, which apart from looking very impressive provided excellent views of the surrounding forest beyond the Hedge.

"I meant about the job," Rio giggled, "I don't know anything about how they grow the trees, I'm not privy to that kind of information"

"Where to start... How, for a start, am I no longer translucent and sort of solid again?"

"Well, it's complex but in layman's terms, your body can now subconsciously tell the difference between the times you need to be unseen by the living and the times when it's all right to be visible. It's instinctual, or so Azriel tells me. I personally think he doesn't really know."

"Well, that answers my next question, but I'm still not sure where I got a body from in the first place. I saw... I..."

It seemed like half an hour ago, despite the fact that it was probably months later outside the Reaper world, and it still chilled him to think of seeing himself and Jack just lying there. "Do I actually have a physical body now, or does it just look like it?"

"Technically yes, and technically…no. What we are, are souls made solid. We represent who we were, what made you who you were, who you are;" Rio took a drink of her coffee as if she were dying of thrist, "it takes a bit to accept but it's not so bad," she said once her mug was down again, "I know how you feel, it scared me to death when I saw my own corpse, no pun intended."

Ianto paused for a bit and stared down into his coffee, obviously embarrassed about his next enquiry "Does that mean Jack and I can...?" he mumbled, blushing profusely.

Rio smiled, somewhat coyly: "I have a husband and a baby that wasn't conceived by Immaculate Conception…what do you think, Mr Jones?"

He blushed. "Not like with Owen then... Do I still need to eat and drink and sleep?"

"No, Owen was more or less a reanimated corpse; as for food, drink and sleep, you can do all those things, but you don't really have to anymore. Though the first couple of days you might think you're hungry and tired. You'll still appreciate them though"

"Well, at least coffee tastes like coffee"

"Amen to that," she giggled slightly, "it's nice to have another former-human to talk to, you know?"

While the two reapers were talking, across the street one of the beautiful people sat on a bench and looked in through the window.

Antoinette, for a change, was right about something, although he didn't trust Antoinette enough to believe what she'd said about why Rio was sitting in a cafe, giggling with another undead, and despite it going against what he logically and rationally believed of Rio, and despite the fact he was sure she would never, **ever** leave him for another Reaper, and that she adored him, he felt a pang of jealousy.

And because of that, he was annoyed with himself, annoyed with himself for having actually come out here - it felt like a breach of trust- and annoyed with himself for being jealous when it was almost certainly just a working lunch with a colleague. But, but she looked like she was having fun, and of late he felt like he bored her.

He saw them stand up; coffees obviously finished and get ready to leave the coffee shop.

Rio pushed her hair behind her ears and her colleague smoothed down the front of his, admittedly extremely smart charcoal suit, as they both put their chairs back into place beneath the table and made their way back out onto the street.

"So, will I have to wear a robe?" Asked Ianto. "And will I be getting a sword or what?"

"Yes you'll have to wear a robe, it's traditional and expected; but the rest of the time you can wear what you like; as for your tool of the trade…that entirely depends on what you want, Ianto. What're you comfortable with using?"

Ianto paused. His role in Torchwood had been really one technologically based, and although he had been a team player in the field, he wasn't the warrior Jack was or a good shot like Gwen, so right now he paused. "How did you choose?"

"Took me a little bit," she confessed, "I mean, I'm of Brazilian descent but using a spear just lacks elegance. Eventually, the Katana appealed because it's a very beautiful weapon, plus it was easy to get a belt to keep it at my waist," so saying she opened one side of her robe, showing that she was, oddly, wearing dark blue 'skater' jeans under it and a tooled black leather belt to which her Katana's sheath was attached.

Ianto sighed. "Right now I feel like I'm going to end up snipping people from their worlds with a pair of scissors."

"Nah, you'll find something," Rio smiled at him reassuringly and patted his arm in a friendly way, "speaking of finding things, we should probably find my workaholic husband…what time is it?" she patted an area around her neck, before her eyes widened in panic, "Frick, where'd I put my 'Avalon-Time' watch?"

"Oh, sorry, you left it on the table when you went to pay for the coffee and I picked it up." Ianto handed her back the watch, stopping to look at it for a minute; it was a tiny silver pendant-watch, engraved with Celtic symbols and hung on a silver chain; "It's very beautiful. Nice workmanship." It glinted slightly in an Avalonian sun that made any thing that shined look like gold. "I'm guessing that most watches don't measure time in the void well…Is that why Azriel has a sand-timer on his desk?"

"It reminds him that time DOES move for him, if ever so slowly" Rio held out her hand for her watch, hanging it back carefully around her neck before she checked the time; "hmm, 5.37pm exactly…'Danen's probably closing up the library by now…" she looked up at the Welshman, "we can either go to the library and meet him or we can go to my house and wait…the choice is entirely yours"

"I'd like to go to the library, see if there are any books that might be good background reading to my new job. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Not especially; it's mostly 'learn as you go' but you're welcome to look. Father in Heaven knows the place is big enough to have books on it…the library is…" Rio turned in a circle in the middle of the street, as if remembering where they were, "THAT building,"

She pointed to the large wood and crystal building that'd caught Ianto's attention before

"I thought THAT was a cathedral... The Elves must really value their books." The building seemed to be a temple to knowledge as much as a repository for books.

Meanwhile the two reapers seemed perfectly oblivious to the white-haired figure in beige retreating down the mosaic road back to the library, the Avalonian sun turning his braids the same honey gold as that of all the other beautiful people.

"You've no idea," the reaper-girl said dryly, leading the way up the steps and effortlessly pushing open a heavy oak door, which surprisingly didn't squeak as you'd expect.

If Ianto had thought the outside had been impressive, then the inside…they inside was…breathtaking

The building was even more like a cathedral on the inside. A huge nave like hall ran down the middle, the ceiling coloured glass and crystal sheets from the door way to a lantern tower, lined either side with four storeys of galleries of books, shelves in rows like pews, and in the centre, under the grand lantern was the high altar itself - 'Danen's desk as librarian.

"Welcome to the Avalon Library," Rio told Ianto, "there's books here that you know, a lot that you don't, and a few that only exist here because they were never written. I think the stone tablets of Moses might've ended up here…Never checked the index fully…" she looked from side to side, searching for something, before she broke into a smile and headed towards the left of the large, impressive Head Librarian's desk.

"Hey," she cooed gently, "where's my angel?"

Ianto watched as his…mentor? Friend? Knelt and deftly plucked a cooing child, barely eight-months old from the look of it, from a makeshift playpen and up and into her arms; and then he took another glance around this seemingly endless maze of knowledge.

'Danen poked his head out what, if this had been a cathedral, would have been a door in the corner where the north transept and the chancel met. As it was, it was an arched doorway hidden behind the trunk of a tree so vast it seemed to be geology rather than botany, and Ellandanen, an elf of no mean stature, seemed a tiny child beside it.

He didn't smile as broadly as he usually did at the scene of his family, but apart from that, he seemed his usual self.

"Riaden's been very good today," he told Rio, stepping into the two reaper's line of vision, "He watched Daddy re-bind those disintegrating books from Lichanthropen very quietly, and didn't decide that a fresh nappy was an indication that it was time to urinate."

'Danen had never got the hang of baby talk, nor of the fact that word was genuinely a word if it held fewer than three syllables. (Mind you, being called Ellandannen Namancasiren Varasqueth probably had something to do with that.)

"Hello sweetheart," the reaper-girl said with obvious affection towards the elf-librarian, even embracing him with her free arm; "Let me introduce you…Ellandanen, this is Ianto Jones, a new recruit into the Reapers…Azriel's left his training to me. Ianto Jones, formerly of Torchwood, this is Ellandanen Varasqueth, head librarian of Avalon, father of this little bundle of joy," she gestured to the silver-haired baby on her arms, "and the love of my afterlife"

'Danen looked relieved, as far as an elf of his kind shows visible emotion, and hugged Rio back tightly and blushed at '_Love of my afterlife'_ because he was still an elf and still not at ease with public displays of emotion, not even now, but at least he wasn't the terrible shade of puce he would have been when they had first met.

In the midst of mild embarrassment, it dawned on him he had met Ianto before or, rather, seen him before.

"Pleased to met you, Mr. Jones, and welcome to Avalon" 'Danen had mastered the art of being perfectly clear and audible without raising his voice to above the volume of a whisper. "Did you know Captain Darkn- Harkness. Harkness?"

The other man's face grew sad at the mention of the Time Agent, if felt as if the warmth he'd gained of the last few hours had suddenly vanished.

"Yes," he said quietly with a small nod, "we…we were…"

Danen didn't understand what was going on and decided it was best to move on.

"I met Captain Harkness once, interesting fellow. Anyway, was your journey here pleasant? I hope you didn't get too dizzy, it's worse than hopping into the Fairy Gate for making one disorientated, travelling with Rio the first time."

Ianto was glad for the topic change, it kept him from breaking into tears over Jack, and he had to remind himself that he'd likely see Jack again quite soon.

"Yes, it was fine. She found me a bench to sit on and then bought me some coffee…it's really good here. The city is amazing"

"Of all the cities in all the nations of all the planets I have visited, Avalon has the fourth best coffee."

"Really? Where has the best?"

"A town with brass hippopotami on the bridge on a strangely flat planet with lots of witches. I was only there briefly, and didn't quite catch the name."

The conversation would have continued on the subject of coffee if not for Rio pointing out that firstly, they needed to go home because it was getting late and it would be the baby's bedtime soon. And secondly, that a conversation about coffee is better when you're sat on a sofa and actually have a mug of coffee to drink from.

TBC

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_ As promised, here's a brief explanation of the goings on of Avalon.

**Attitude:** A lot of elves view humans as inferior to themselves, since humans are not immortal and in their opinion have less time to accumulate as much knowledge as the elves feel they do. Reapers rank slightly higher, being immortal also, but have the flaw of once being human. Not all elves are like this though so it's wrong to tar them with the same brush

**Antoinette**: A rather vicious female elf; physically pretty but her actions make her ugly. In the early days of Ellandanen and Rio forming a couple she was always there to try and break them up through a lot of very underhanded and very hurtful tricks; fancying Ellandanen more for the position of power he holds, rather than for himself (like Rio does). Even now she's always trying to cause arguments and break them up so she can make a move on Ellandanen, Luckily, they see through the majority o the BS she spouts.

**The City:** Is a living thing, because it's made out of trees…like the Wood Elf city from LOTR but more…cityish. Carolin knows better than me because it's her head-baby. I'd suggest visiting her deviantart page: carolin54323 .deviantart .com (without the gaps)

**Riaden:** Rio and Ellandanen's son; (I'm sure you clever people already guessed that ^_^) the product of an actual miracle that Rio received. He is their first and last child. At the moment he's teething, starting to crawl and speak a little. His name is a mix of both his parent's names.


	5. This Dream We Call 'Life'

Ianto woke slowly, his mind registering that he was in a very soft bed and the sun was streaming onto his face from a crack in the curtains.

He found he was reluctant to get up but at the same time, didn't really want to be asleep anymore.

He turned to lie on his back and thought about last night; after they'd left the library.

It'd seemed like any other family's evening; cooking, catching up, feeding, bathing and putting the baby to bed…with the exception that at the point where Rio had burnt her fingers on the stove, she hadn't reacted save for blowing out the flames as casual as you please.

…maybe he was starting to have doubts about this new job…but he hadn't even started yet, not properly.

Today was supposed to be the first day of his training and he had no idea what to expect.

In the kitchen, a few doors away down the corridor; Ellandanen was staring deeper into his morning coffee than usual and thinking.

A spare bed in his living room was not really what Ianto deserved, and anyway, he liked having a living room to practice the clarinet in softly of an evening, sitting by the fire and reading, snuggling Rio and playing chess. He was thinking of offering Ianto his old rooms under the library, but it was currently being used, as storage and he couldn't think of when he'd get time to clear it out.

Also, Keira might be a bit upset that she hadn't been offered the rooms, despite now being his full-time assistant.

'Danen also was wondering if he had spare robes Rio could dye for Ianto, and then realised he had some old funereal robes that could probably do if turned up at the hems, as he was a bit taller than Ianto.

Meanwhile, the human-shaped man stretched slightly and finally sat up; he couldn't remember having slept so well.

The phrase 'I slept like the dead' offered itself up for consideration, which made him shudder, he still wasn't quite comfortable with being dead just yet

Ianto rubbed his eyes and looked around…clothes…he needed clothes…it was funny, he couldn't remember having taken them off at all last night, but here he was in…he raised the sheet covering him in a slight panic at the thought he might be naked in someone else's house, but was relieved to find he was wearing black cotton pyjama trousers

"Hello?" Ianto called somewhat tentatively, pushing back the covers and swinging his feet around to touch the floor before willing himself to stand…he could smell coffee and so he followed that scent through hallways and past doors, before he found the kitchen and an elf who looked deep in thought

"Good morning..." Finally responded a vacant looking elf that seemed to be staring into the depths of his coffee like a seer looking for the secrets of the future. "Do you mind basements?"

"I'm sorry?" he blinked; that was a random question to ask someone!

"Did I get my English wrong…Er…cellars? Rooms underneath the ground below buildings."

"No, no…your English is fine. But um…why would you ask if I mind them?"

"I was just wondering." He paused. "I have a few things I need to enquire about."

He didn't want to deal with a sulking Keira, but Keira already had an apartment, and it was only two streets away from the library, so she had never really needed his space in the basement, and also, it had taken a while for him to trust her again after she had leapt into the Rift.

The first reason made a good excuse; the second would only upset her.

"OK…" Ianto sat, uninvited, at the table across from Ellandanen, "Is there any more coffee?" he asked, "it's strange; it…feels like I want it more than I actually need it…I think I should have breakfast but I don't _feel_ as if I'm hungry…"

"I can't see how eating could hurt - have some toast. I'll fetch you a coffee." Ellandanen nudged a plate of golden toast towards Ianto. "There's marmalade, strawberry jam and raspberry jam. Feel free to have as much fruit as you want."

With that, 'Danen got up to make coffee "How do you like it? I'm sorry about there not being any muesli, but I forgot to buy a new bag yesterday."

"Coffee? Milk no sugar and…thanks for the toast," so saying, Ianto took a piece and took a bite of it…he could taste it. It tasted like toast…this was exactly like breakfast should be…except that he didn't feel hungry and normally his stomach would've been gurgling

Internally, the elf twinged. He had, ostensibly, passed the coffee shop on his way to the grocers, but had forgotten entirely about muesli when he'd got there, and instead replenished the workshop biscuit supply... and thus right now he wasn't paying as much attention to the coffee and it ended up a little darker than he usually liked, and hoped Ianto wouldn't mind. "You look... deep in thought, is something worrying you?" he said, placing a leaf green mug with silver detailing in front of the Welshman

'Danen had looked round to see Ianto staring at his toast as if it had suddenly sat up and sang.

"Is the toast Ok?"

"Hm? Oh…no…the toast is fine, it's just…still getting used to the whole… being dead and a reaper, you know?"

"Not from experience. I'm older than some planets... but I can imagine it must be very difficult initially. Thankfully you have Rio to explain things to you. I don't think there were many other reapers around when Rio took Azriel's Deal."

"Do you find it hard being with her?" Ianto asked after a few minutes of silence had stretched between them; he was wondering if his and Jack's relationship would suffer, "I mean, with her being away such a lot, and the job she does…do you ever hate her for leaving you alone?"

Maybe Ellandanen could give him some pointers on not having your living lover hate you?

"I miss her when she gets sent away on missions for weeks at a time, and I have had... cross words with Azriel, which is a shame, because he is a good friend of mine, and Rio is in a rather... unique profession that means she HAS to do such things," The elfin man said, thoughtfully stirring his coffee with a delicate looking silver teaspoon, "and sometimes, yes, I am angry that she has to leave me and Riaden without warning, but then I remember that we all have a job to do, and she is doing something of great benefit to the peoples of the universe, and anyway, the times we are apart make the times we are together sweeter. I will admit she does not have the most... sociable of jobs," he paused in his stirring and smiled in a slightly dreamy way before he continued, "but I love her, and she loves me, and that is the important thing."

Before Ianto could ask anything further, a loud infantile wail that spoke of loneliness sounded through the house, quickly followed by Rio's call on: "I'm there" and the sound of footsteps and the cry trailed off, it was just possible to hear the words: _"There, there; don't cry, mama's here now. Did you think we'd forgotten you; __meu precioso__?"_

"And she is a wonderful mother." The elf didn't want to mention it, but he felt out of place with children, and was finding it hard to adjust to being a father. It wasn't a lack of connection, but a constant worry about not knowing what to do for the best.

"That's what I like to see in the morning…" Rio's voice drawled from the kitchen doorway, both men turned to look at her. She wasn't wearing her reaper's robe this morning, instead she was plainly wearing her 'skater' jeans, a black shirt with long purple sleeves, a black velvet choker at her throat, and a sleepy eyed, silver haired elfing baby on her hip, who was chewing vigorously on a teething ring.

"…Two fit, mostly naked blokes in my kitchen." she winked at them and smiled

"I'm wearing my nightgown..." Interjected the elf "...And he has reaper-Pajamas, you can't possibly think reaper-pyjamas attractive?" 'Danen laughed. The coffee had kicked in and he was in a good mood.

"Oh, I think YOU'RE attractive whatever you're wearing, 'Danen," Rio told him with a look that reminded Ianto very strongly of Jack, before she looked at Ianto,

"Did you sleep well? We've a lot of ground to cover after breakfast."

Ellandanen gave a silly grin. It was a grin rarely seen beyond house walls, and for that matter, rarely seen on the face of such a serious elf. "Good to know I'm appreciated in pyjamas."

The child on Rio's hip suddenly made grabby motions at his father and made noises that sounded a lot like 'Up! Da! Up!'

"Fine thank you…" Ianto said, feeling out of place in this picture of domesticity, I'm starting to understand the saying 'slept like the dead', though I feel odd saying it,"

He watched as Ellandanen put his coffee down and carefully took Riaden. "And how are we this morning, my little elf?" He gave Riaden a tiny tickle on his nose that provoked a squeaky giggle. "And who was a very good little elf who only woke mummy and daddy up once in the night?" 'Danen looked up at Rio. "Any sign of that tooth yet? Do you want me to go to the apothecary and get some of that herbal paste?

The elf had one eye on his coffee, making sure he'd put it far enough across the table for small hands not to knock it.

Rio nodded lightly, "Top front tooth is starting to come through, his gums are a bit enflamed so if you don't mind going today…?"

Ianto watched this exchange between the couple and felt another pang of 'Missing Jack' stab at him slightly

"I've collated a folder of articles for and against pacifiers, and I put it on top of the ice-chest"

"Good good, my big strong organised man" Rio kissed his cheek; chucked her son lightly under the chin before sitting down beside Ianto.

"You OK?" She asked; "you look a bit down."

"I'm OK," he replied, somewhat more stiffly than he meant to, "I'm just…I can't help thinking about how much time might've passed while I was in Azriel's office. What if it's been a thousand years already?"

"It has not been a thousand years," she reassured him, pouring herself some rich black coffee, "To Jack it's been 8 and a half months…that's a record for him, he hasn't died yet!"

The Welshman watched as the reaper-girl took a deep drink of her coffee and waited until she'd set her mug down on the table once more before asking anything (this girl, he realised, REALLY enjoyed her coffee. She almost put him to shame)

"How is he? Has he moved into the old Torchwood One now the government blew up Cardiff…? " It still made him feel sick to the core to think of Jack being conscious and feeling that explosion rip through him.

"He's…OK. He's not great. He's hurting and blaming himself…also working in a ship that's seen better days; that's why I'm so surprised he hasn't died again yet…but he's OK. He must really love you to start feeling the wanderlust since you're gone"

"So... Torchwood's... gone?"

"More or less. Torchwood 2 is still going I think; but I know nothing about what's going to happen to The Hub," she patted his arm reassuringly, "everything has its reason, even if we don't always understand it."

"Just depends who's doing the reasoning" Jack replied a little more morosely than usual.

"Look, you deserve a bone, so I'll make a deal with you, OK?" Rio said, resting her cheek on her hand, "You show me that you can perform at least 2 reaper powers today and I'll take you to Jack, sound fair?"

"Sounds fair"

His second thought was: _'Also sounds hard'._

He was still getting used to the idea that although he was solid, this wasn't a real body, and that he was indeed actually dead, and not going to wake up to find this all some surreal nightmare.

"Alright," Rio nodded slowly, "we'll start with the most basic…get dressed. Without moving from the table," she told him

"I can't remember where I put my clothes last night..." He tried to think of where he put them last night, and he still couldn't remember. "I thought I had fallen asleep fully dressed, but I woke up in these black pyjamas." He had a vaguely unsettling after thought. "Are these his?" He asked, looking at 'Danen.

"No. What you're wearing now used to be your suit; it seems you did manage to change last night. But now you need to do the reverse. Just imagine yourself wearing jeans and a shirt or…I don't know, a suit like the one you were wearing."

Ianto shut his eyes, and concentrated on the idea of him wearing a shirt, trying to visualise the details in exactitude, the number of buttons, the weight of the material, the fit of the cuffs... all the while daring not to open his eyes lest he be dissuaded by the continuing lack of a shirt appearing.

"Not bad," Rio said finally, "shirt's a little short in the arms, but the colour's nice; All in all, not a bad first go. You did better than I did,"

Ianto opened one eye and then the other, and gingerly looked at his arms, to see whether there really was a shirt there or not. She was right; the sleeves were a little short.

Being a perfectionist when it comes to being well turned out, he decided to try and rectify the situation, glaring at his sleeves, willing them to grow. Not much happened.

That failing, he tugged at them.

Still no change

"You're thinking about it too much," she told him, "take a deep breath, relax and try again,"

Ianto shut his eyes again and took a few deep breaths, counting them against heart beats, and tried to still his frustration, and on the blank slate of his inner vision, tried to picture his sleeves growing, extending slowly to the correct place on his wrists, and no further.

He then paused, let that vision drift away, and then worked on trying to sort his trousers. He decided that he was going to need underwear under his trousers, despite not being in a real body, and set about trying to visualise comfy warm underwear under his trousers.

Rio started snickering lightly, "Oh my…"

Ianto guessed something bad had happened, and opened his eyes and looked down. "Oh... I got those on the _outside_... that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Don't worry," Rio politely covered her mouth, trying to stop the giggles, "you've done pretty good until that point…not bad." her pale cheeks actually went slightly pink, though whether she was embarrassed or REALLY trying to hold back her laughter was anyone's guess.

"Oh don't sulk," she said, clearing her throat, "at least you didn't end up in short shorts and a bikini top…never going to hear the end of it from the Boss Man on that one…"

Ianto couldn't quite picture Azriel making underwear jokes, but it didn't matter, because right now he had shut his eyes again and was concentrating on having underwear underneath his trousers, and proper pinstripe trousers with pressed creases and no fly half down. He was having trouble with trying to visualise the mechanics of how they should switch places, and after thinking of them phasing through each other, turning into an opaque cloud and reforming in the correct places, he finally settled on the idea of his underpants growing into business trousers, and his pyjama trousers shrinking into underpants.

"Very smart;" Rio nodded in approval, "black suit and a midnight blue shirt? Can't go wrong. Well done!" she even gave him a small round of applause

"I wanted something sombre. Nothing... immodest happened when I tried to fix the underwear situation?"

"Oh, you mean aside from how you ended up naked from the waist down for a few seconds?" she asked innocently, "nope. Nothing at all"

"I…what? Oh dear... In front of Riaden? I'm so sorry." Ianto was starting to fluster, and was threatening to turn a rather Ellandanen-esque shade of pink.

"I'm joking, I'm joking," Rio reassured him quickly, "no, you did fine. Better than fine; don't worry about it. You managed it and that's the important thing; but more practice and it'll practically be second nature. OK, next subject…" she paused to look at where her husband was spoon-feeding their son his breakfast, "'Danen, please don't read him the newspaper," she sighed.

"I wasn't reading him the paper - I was paraphrasing." 'Danen looked vaguely miffed. "Those children's books are not very educational. They have all sorts of silly things cows jumping over moons. That would have to be a very small satellite at a very low orbit to be possible."

"Meu deus, você é um dork," Rio chuckled lightly, "Pelo menos você é adorável com ele," she looked back to Ianto, "I was thinking of having you transport as a next step…but I'd settle for you walking through a solid object. Transportation is a bit tricky at first, if you've no clue where you're going"

"It was just the sports pages!" 'Danen gave Riaden another spoon of beige mush, it looked revolting but the child seemed to like it, even making 'eh' noises in apparent demands for more; "There's nothing bad about cricket. Very dignified sport."

Cricket, tennis and rowing were about as sporting as the elves had got. Archery, equestrianism and fencing were considered martial training, and everything else was considered too undignified to participate in.

The elves in the north liked curling. Some of the elves had discovered bowls and bowling, but it hadn't got very widespread yet as bowling greens had to be flat, and that ran contrary to their passion for carefully undulating landscapes and "natural beauty".

"A solid object?" Ianto looked wary, "I don't think that's a good idea" what if he got stuck halfway through? He'd end up something like Jack trapped in the concrete!

"Don't worry, the worst that can happen is you get stuck half way through" said Danen as he screwed the top of the jar of beige neatly shut. Riaden stuck his thumb in his mouth and watched them all with that piercing look some babies have.

"But even then! I'll be stuck!"

"I'm not expecting you to walk through walls," Rio explained patiently, "try passing your hand through the tabletop; that's basic enough. Remember, don't think about it, just do it. OK?"

Ianto looked apprehensively at his hand and then at the table.

"I'm only solidified by will, right?" He put his hand on the table, and tried, very hard to push through it, but didn't do anything other than make himself look vaguely silly.

He tried to do it a bit quicker, and just made a loud slam that startled Riaden, and just sat there, glaring intently at his hand, pressing the table, sighing, then repeating the process…and finally just sat there.

He looked up at Rio. "This isn't working as well as the clothes."

In response, she grabbed his hand…then proceeded to shake hands with him, through the tabletop.

"I said, don't think about it, just do it. You don't need to understand the mechanics; you just need to believe that you can do it," So saying, she let go, "try it again"

Ianto looked incredulously at his hand going through the table. He looked at his hand as if to make sure he really had one, and tried again. He gingerly put his hand back down to try and repeat the process and... Thud. He still couldn't do it.

This willing things to break the laws of physics and be completely impossible seemed to work with his eyes shut, and so he shut his eyes, and began fumbling around, feeling for the table so he could try again.

He found the toast. It was buttery... and possibly jammy.

He opened his eyes, wiped the jam from his fingers and tried again, this time finding the table, trying keep a mental placement of where it was, and slowly lowering his hand, waiting to feel resistance, trying very hard to convince himself that it would work again and it wasn't just Rio, but sadly just found table and didn't go through it again.

"I can really do this, right?"

Danen mouthed, "I have an idea" to Rio.

"Ianto," he spoke up, "as you seem to better at concentrating with your eyes shut, keep them shut for now. I'm going to pull the table back, first time the table will be completely away, and then each time only a little bit closer, so you just have to concentrate on putting your fingers through the table first and then the rest of your hand. Is that Ok?"

Ianto nodded.

'Danen got up, and then dragged to chairs heavily across the wooden floor so Ianto would hear. "Ready, go!"

Ianto smiled and waved his hand up and down. Not expecting to find resistance, he didn't meet any, except 'Danen had only moved the chairs. "Ianto, open your eyes..."

Ianto opened his yes. "It's worked!" His hand was halfway through the table. He waved it side to side. "It's really worked! My hand... is in the table. My hand is in the table. My _hand_ is _in_ the table!"

"Well done!" Even Riaden joined in the applause this time, "you did it!" Rio even hugged him in her enthusiasm

"This is so strange."

"But it's fun in the right circumstances. You catch on really quickly, I think we'll make a reaper out of you yet" she told him on releasing him from her grip

"So is today going to be about changing and phasing?" Ianto wasn't used to such warm praise. And had decided to carry on with the topic.

"Yes…those are today's lessons, and you're doing really well. You need to learn to do it without closing your eyes but that'll come soon enough, once you're used to it," she paused as if remembering, "by the way, if you take your clothes off manually, they'll vanish when you drop them; that suit's not a real suit, it's the ghost of a suit"

"Oh…umm…I'm not sure how I'd summon clothes from scratch".

"You actually can't do that; but If you buy new, solid, real clothes, they'll remain and you can change them a bit; like changing their colour or making them a bit looser," she said before she pushed herself up from the table,

"Come on, you've earned it. I'll take you to Jack. You get one night. ONE," she held up one finger at him to illustrate the point, "after that, no more until I think you're OK to do jobs by yourself"

"Yes Miss" Ianto grinned.

It seemed odd spending a night with someone at 08:30 AM, but time worked oddly for reapers, and he imagined it was something he'd have to get used to. And guessed she was trying to get him to conserve his energy for the time being, as she had mentioned to start with he'd feel tired and hungry, and guessed this meant that there was some initial period of transformation that required greater energy consumption.

Rio walked around to the other side of the table, where she crouched slightly and planted a kiss on the baby, "Be a good boy for Daddy, Mama'll be back soon, OK?"

Ellandanen also got a kiss…but she whispered something to him that turned him a bright puce colour before she walked back and gently took Ianto's hand.

"Ready?" she asked lightly

TBC

_______________

Author's Note: some more things to clear up and some translations.

Keira: Ellandanen's assistant and a cat woman (not a neko. There's a difference.) She's actually very studious but like most cats she's very curious, it gets her into trouble now and then. She's the main antagonist in a different Torchwood story in progress – it's on hold whilst we work on this one.

_**Translations**_

_**M**__**eu precioso**__ = My precious one_

_**Meu deus, você é um dork. Pelo menos você é adorável com ele**__ = My God, you are a dork. At least you are adorable with it (which she means in a teasing way)_


	6. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

The thundering sound of engines, the buzz of people talking, yelling, joking around, the sheer heat down here, the scent of oil, grease and sweat greeted them as they materialised.

At first it looked like any other engine room…until you realised that the people were speaking of things no earth engine ever used and there was a vast endless void of stars to been seen out of a window.

"Where are we?" Ianto asked, looking around with almost as much wonder as he had done in Avalon, only this place was much more mechanical.

"This would be the ship Jack's working on," Rio told him, not releasing his hand, "It's a dump, and that's saying something. I've seen piles of scrap metal more stable than this"

"But I don't see…" Ianto looked around before he stopped.

There, right there at a control panel above them was Jack.

Outwardly he looked lost in work, but Ianto knew him well enough to know that was just a mask.

"Ja-!" he started but Rio clamped a hand over his mouth quickly.

"Do NOT distract him," she hissed, "his work up there is boring but crucial. He gets off shift in 10 minute. We are going to walk to his room, understand? Just nod"

Jack was here to lose himself in the oblivion of work.

The ship was a wreck, a huge hulk of rusting metal that should have long been sent to the reclamation yard, but it was a huge hulk in flight, spanning the vast distances of space at a slow plod like the determined trek of an aging mule, carrying cargo between colonies stars apart, and Jack was making sure the plod carried on and the ship did not tear itself apart on the journey.

Working on cargo flights was terrible work.

It was hot

Hotter at his control panels than below as he stood on rickety gallery above the vast fiery heart of the machine, and the heat shields had long since disintegrated in the heat of an engine burning too hot since the fuel originally intended for the ancient craft had long since been discontinued.

Tiring, as there were only two people onboard who knew how to keep all things in check, and he was one of them, and they worked long shifts, one sleeping while the other worked, and it demanded his utmost concentration, for at these speeds the blink of an eye was hundreds of miles passed, and a good deal of physical effort. The electronic controls had died an age ago, and too costly to repair, the ship was run with ageing manual controls.

(All in all, the ship failed all possible safety inspection decades ago, and since then they switched the plates and what planet the ship was registered with, and carried on as before.)

Deftly, Rio led Ianto up stairs and along corridors, past scores of people who didn't see them, which was slightly unnerving but not as bad as when they actually ran THROUGH people, until they reached the sparse room that Jack currently called 'home'.

"Here we are,"

The room had changed little since Rio had last been here.

The bed was messier, the sheets hadn't been changed, and the place smelled of Jack, despite his relatively thorough hygiene routines, but there were still no photographs, no personal affects beyond the old military coat hung on the back of the door and few changes of sheets

Not much to say for the room of a man whose lives had spanned centuries.

"Is this it? It's not like Jack's style; I thought there'd be something. This is…this is so…empty."

"I think that's what he wanted," Rio said softly, "poor baby was really cut up."

Ianto glanced around the room once more and then looked at Rio again.

"Thank you, for this I mean and for…everything."

"You're welcome. I only ask for one thing now,"

"What's that?"

"Keep making him happy; I miss his smile."

Rio lightly pushed Ianto so that he was sitting on Jack's bunk.

"Enjoy yourself. When you're ready to leave, visualise my living room, you'll wind up there. I'll be waiting for you. Understand?"

She tilted her head as if listening, "I should go, he's on his way; have fun!" and with that, she blew him a kiss as she vanished into nothing.

* * *

Jack was tired.

Very tired.

They'd encountered an uncharted asteroid belt on his shift, thankfully a narrow and sparse one, otherwise he wasn't sure he could have brought everyone safely through.

The old engine didn't like changing speed and the hull was corroded half to hell as it was.

Dying out here worried him as much as the others, because resurrecting in the vacuum of space repeatedly until his battered corpse hit some kind of civilisation was probably a worse fate than dying just the once and staying dead. It would be worse than when he had been buried in the darkness, and that had felt like an eternity of choking, cloying, bleak agony.

He got through the door and sagged onto his bed.

It creaked.

Something large and insectoid, somewhere between a cockroach and a rat, scurried into a rusty hole in a wall where a leaky water pipe vanished into the ship.

Jack swore at it.

"That's not very appropriate language, Sir," a voice, an achingly familiar welsh accented voice, one that he thought he'd never hear again, said from behind him.

Jack looked up.

It was Ianto.

No.

It wasn't Ianto.

Ianto was dead.

He was hallucinating.

Not something he expected, but apparently more frequent than would imagine with complex grief, and he supposed the stress of the day had only compounded it.

Time to take his daily pills! (He wasn't quite sure what they were, he'd got them about a month ago on some wretched planet where the air smelled of vomit but they helped him sleep but yet also made it easier to concentrate in the fiery hell of the engine room)

Sleeping had not been easy.

In theory he didn't need to. He'd been an insomniac for a very long time and slept rarely. But he'd found out that out here, spending 8 hours at a time in the inferno, sleep was needed.

"Jack…" Ianto put his hand on the other man's shoulder, "this is not a dream," he said sincerely, "I'm here," …and then wrapped his arms around Jack tightly, unable to hold back anymore.

He'd missed this.

Missed this man so damned much; he inhaled the scent that was uniquely Jack Harkness.

His Jack.

"I missed you," he murmured against Jack's neck, "I missed you so much"

Jack just sat there. Things right now just didn't make any sense at all, and it took a few seconds for him make sense of it all.

No, he wasn't hallucinating, or at least if he was, his brain was doing a very good job of simulating what Ianto smelt like, felt like, looked like and sounded like, and although reason alone could never prove Ianto's reality, something deeper did.

"I love you…" Ianto murmured, "please…tell me it's not been a thousand years already?"

That was a chance to say something concrete that made sense and wouldn't be a stream of incoherence.

"About 9 months, give or take a week... I've lost track of exact time on this ship."

"It's been just over a day for me," Ianto said, moving around to cup Jack's face, "I missed you though," he repeated gently, before leaning forward to place a kiss on Jack's mouth

And with that, Jack, gave in to reality, and went from standing there in complete shock, to kissing Ianto passionately and crying slightly. He had missed him so much, so damn much. The pain had torn at him, gnawed at him, eaten away for months. It was not the only thing that haunted him, but it had haunted him with persistence.

And then a second realisation hit him, and he drew back.

"You're... still dead." Ianto wasn't warm and sweet to kiss any more, and his skin now pale and lifeless, and Jack couldn't feel him breathe or hear a heartbeat.

Oh god! He had been brought back like Owen! A re-animated corpse! A tortured tragedy!

"I know," Ianto told him, "But I'm not like Owen. I'm not a corpse and I'm not here against my own will."

"You... came back, for me? Does that mean..." Jack couldn't do it; he couldn't finish the sentence, he couldn't ask if he was forgiven, or if he could be forgiven for leading Ianto to his death.

"I'm sorry, Ianto, I'm sorry for everything." For the first time in a very long time, Jack was opening up. There was so much he had repented of not saying; so many times he had left Ianto in the cold.

It had taken Ianto's death to make him realise, and the enormity of what it had taken to make him see that shocked him.

Ianto gently tugged Jack towards him and just held the other man, stroking his hair, back and shoulders in a soothing way,

"I don't blame you. I'm not angry; you didn't make me go with you, Jack" he nuzzled him gently, "don't spend tonight crying tears, please?"

Jack paused. "Is…tonight all we have?"

"For now," Ianto actually chuckled, "it's all Rio's letting me have until I finish all my training. Or so she says."

"Training? Rio? You took Azriel's Deal?"

Jack couldn't quite believe what he was saying. Ianto should never have been in a position to take that deal. As far as he had gathered, Reaping was the alternative to Purgatory, or department of Purgatory or something. If whatever lay beyond - and in nearly 2,000 times of dying, he had only seen a chaotic glimpse of the true beyond - had decided that Ianto deserved that, then God was a sociopath messing with the world for His amusement.

"It was an offer I took gladly…though Azriel tells me I can go to Heaven any time I choose to…I chose to stay because, let's face it, you need me," Ianto kissed Jack's cheek softly, "It's not Heaven without the one you love there,"

Jack looked away. "You don't deserve an asshole like me, I've treated you like dirt, I've put you in danger unnecessarily, I haven't been open with you, I haven't always been truthful with you, and despite the fact I said I loved you, I treated you like a "part time shag. Hand Azriel your scythe, go to Heaven... Lisa might be there by now."

"Will you stop blaming yourself?" Ianto was starting to get the tiniest bit irritated now, he didn't like that Jack was still feeling guilty, it was time to move on from that now…what was it Rio was always telling him?

"You're thinking too much," he said pulling Jack into another deep kiss. There was no room for argument or protestation. He kept his grip on the other man firm but gentle, wanting Jack to forget everything except that Ianto was here with him now.

It was weird kissing Ianto. There was something statuesque about him, preserved and beautiful, but not alive. It was like kissing one of the lizard people from... oh, he'd forgotten where, he was starting to forget that Ianto's lips were chill, and the only real life in his eyes... or was it that as they kissed Ianto became more human?

Jack, Ianto thought, was still perfect, he was beautiful as always all he could think about was seeing more of Jack, almost unthinkingly tugging the other man's oil-stained shirt from his body.

"Messy," Ianto teased him, easing the shirt from Jack's shoulders, "you're filthy"

"Completely dirty."

Ianto paused for a few seconds to rest his forehead affectionately, taking the time to feel Jack's pulse and breath.

"You're beautiful, Jack," he murmured, letting Jack start to remove his own clothing.

There was no regret, no blame or any shame. There was only the two them, helping to heal each other's heart.

Nothing but each other

Something had changed about Jack.

Right now, he'd rather just hold Ianto than make love, feel him solidly - and now definitely warmly, beside him, here, present, not lost for eternity in death.

Maybe Ianto was simply absorbing Jack's body heat, but as they lay in each other's arms, not speaking, Ianto was a long way from an animate corpse.

"Are you OK?" Ianto asked, actually quite content to lie and let Jack hold him. This was good. It made him feel safe in a strange and wonderful way. It felt…like real love.

Jack smiled at Ianto, looking in his eyes. "Better than Ok" it was whispered, an exhausted, contended, happy whisper. Jack was falling asleep, peacefully, for a change, without the aid of alien medication.

Ianto watched him, all doubts that he'd made the wrong decision fading away as he watched Jack fall asleep.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter is made of sugar! 100% pure candyfloss! I'm sorry it was short and lacked smuttiness (no offence to anyone hoping for it; we just didn't want to make the story all about porn.)


	7. It Never Rains but it Pours

How long they lay there just holding each other was anyone's guess, but it seemed much too soon before it was time for Jack's next shift, and Ianto had to return to Rio's, as promised. They kissed and held each other tightly before Ianto managed to make himself vanish.

Jack hadn't even got half way down the corridor before the whole ship shook and the screeching and groans of shearing metal rent the air.

So much for waking up to the best day in the world

The whole ship was blaring alert sirens and the crew began to panic

Jack snagged someone running past him. "What's going on?"

From within the string of expletives, Jack gathered that they'd entered the other side of the asteroid belt and been broadsided by the last remains of a shattered planet.

Or rather that's what he deduced from "We've been f**king hit by a motherf**king bloody meteor"

"Damnit" He ran for the control room. "What's our status."

"Hull breached in cargo deck 9, running down to maintenance deck 6, sir".

A three-storey tear across the ship's hull

Perfect.

"We're losing fuel sir, and we've sealed the air locks, but pressure's dropping." That was because the air locks hadn't sealed properly in about five years. "How fast?" "We can last about another 10 minutes."

They were at least 2 days from the nearest safe port, and about a week from their destination.

This was not good.

"Hello, Sunshine," a voice said nearby, "Have a nice night?" The reaper girl asked casually, though she was keeping up with Jack's frantic pace.

"Wonderful until about 2 minutes ago. Right now, I need to concentrate, so you would you mind ferrying the dead unless you have any helpful hints that don't count as 'interfering'"

The two pressing dangers were running out of air, or even worse fuel and ruptured oxygen tanks in near proximity. Actually, maybe the first option was worse, because explosions were quicker than suffocation and while infinitely more painful, the pain only lasted a second before oblivion. Even if that was a second that seemed stretched to an eternity.

"Hmm…not really;" she told him, "see, this is one of those situations where you'll POSSIBLY die. So you're having a near death experience. That means _**I **_am having a near-Harkness experience. Left the baby with his father to be here," Rio looked around, "but you're doing marvellously from what I see."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence."

"Anytime…excuse me" she vanished promptly leaving him alone with his frightened shipmates

"Halt" he shouted at a group of four engineers running out of the engine room past him. He turned round. "HALT!" Three out of four stopped.

"You three; seal off decks six to nine."

"Captain, there are people in there"

"In the time it takes them to evacuate we'll have all suffocated, now seal them off."

"Captain -"

"Seal them off!" He prayed that the skeleton crew manning the two-rear gun turrets still had better air-lock doors than those before of them.

It felt like it took forever and at the same time, no time at all to complete the task. It was like moving through syrup when he thought back on it

Ten minutes had never felt so long. His second order had been to turn off the engine. There was no point wasting what fuel they had left, they could never get to anywhere on what they had, and it was better to save fuel for manoeuvring if someone came to rescue them.

From now on, they were floating in the void, and waiting.

"Way to go, Captain, oh my captain," Rio said once he was in a corner by himself and at a complete loss for what to do, "you're my hero, Jack-Jack," she smiled, it was quite creepy considering that her hood was up, obscuring everything above the bridge of her nose.

"I'm nobody's hero until I find out what's happened to those in the stern. Which is going to be hard as we've welded the bulkheads shut." His plan had been to stabilise the craft to last long enough to await rescue now he had the situation stabilised, he could assess the extent of the damage.

"Rik," He called down from what was effectively the bridge on this strangely designed vessel that was pretty much a giant engine with storage space for cargo and men behind, guns at the corners and a control deck mounted above the engine where, in theory, if it had all the right number of windows, you could see 360 degrees.

It didn't have all the right number of windows, but that wasn't he point right now. "Rick - do we have any coms with either stern turrets?"

"Got one online right now!" the man called back, urgently. He sounded tired, they all sounded tired

There was a pregnant pause, "There's survivors, captain"

"How many - are there any casualties?"

………

"Three casualties, two deceased and five survivors. They're requesting medical help"

That was going to be a problem. If they re-opened the bulkheads, they'd be opening what was left intact to the vacuums of space, and while the hull was designed to survive something like this, and the ship structurally sound, opening the bulkheads would mean what breatheable air was left would be sucked away and they'd all die.

The entire upper cargo section had been sealed off, as what were decks six to nine at stem and stern, was all just the massive warehouse of Upper Cargo amidships. And the stairs to the turrets were at the back of Upper Cargo.

This was nightmarish. This was partly what he'd been running from.

He wanted to cry in frustration, but now, very obviously, wasn't the time. What could he do?!

"Someone needs to go through Middle Cargo, into Upper Cargo and to the turrets."

"I'll go," He said not even thinking about the possible danger, he'd survive, he knew he would. "But I need a medic with me."

This was going to be a team effort. There was no way, for a start, one person alone could open the hatches between cargo decks, and secondly, he wasn't a medic. How grateful he would have been had Owen been there...but Owen, like most people he knew, was long gone.

"Don't wallow!" a sudden clip to the head brought him back, "do your job, Jack."

Judging from the expressions on those around him, Rio was currently invisible, because nobody was staring in wild-eyed panic at there being a Reaper in the room. Deciding that the crew didn't need to see him arguing with some invisible entity lest they believe him to have lost his mind, he didn't reply.

"Do I have any volunteers?"

Jack was hoping someone would step forward to join him. He knew they were risking their lives to go into Upper Cargo, and while he could take that risk, he didn't want to force other people to go to what could very likely be their deaths.

Rik stepped forward, he was mid-thirties and skinny as a rake; Jack knew him vaguely; no family as far as anyone knew; but then most people were here to forget their pasts. No one joined this ship unless they were trying to forget or had very little to live for. He didn't want to lose one of the few decent men on this ship. Rik was a good communications officer, and would be needed to make contact with any rescue vessel, if one came... But as far as he could see, the real medics had fled. They'd only had two, a fraction of what interplanetary regulation stipulated, but right now they had none.

"Rik, do you have medical training?"

"A little," Rik said, his voice was rough from consistent talking over the communication devices day in and day out, "…in another life," was all he added and Jack knew he wouldn't get more out of him.

"Right - " Rik had volunteered, and that meant not picking someone. Now was the time to salvage what was left of the situation. He pulled open a cupboard beside his work station, and dragged out the two space suits intended for the two captains. "Etienne, take over communications - we'll keep in touch, I'll need you to operate the airlocks between cargo decks remotely - but only when I say."

"Right now, I want you to get hold of the turrets and find out the situation down there, what state the ship's in, what injuries we have to deal with, who is dead, any dangers we haven't found out about yet."

"Got it!" Etienne responded, taking over Rik's station as calmly as possible and began working the controls & speaking devices

"I love my job sometimes," Rio whispered into Jack's ear, "challenging work…out of doors…mind the big cracks," before she once again vanished into nothing.

It was an even greater miracle that the suits were in good working order. The haulage firm cared no more for its captains than for the giant roaches in the crawl spaces.

It was an even greater that he managed to find two full air-tanks. By the time they were both suited up, the bridge felt as external as outer space underneath the weight of the suits. They couldn't hear a word of what was going on outside the suits except for what came through their headphones.

Scratched visors obscured what they could see, and the infrared night-vision only worked in Rik's helmet.

"Injury list runs as follows: possible fractured arms and collar bones," Etienne's voice told them, she was obviously doing her damnedest to keep calm but wasn't quite managing it, "one possible broken leg and multiple gashes and bruising."

"Thank you, what's the ship like down there?"

"…seems stable at the moment but that could change any minute"

Jack muttered under his breath. It was probably a curse. "We're going down to Middle Cargo, when we get to the air-lock between Middle and Upper, we'll switch to breathing from the tanks and I want you to gradually decompress.

The walk towards the area had never seemed longer than right now, the heavy boots of the suits clanging ominously as they made their way to the affected area.

Jack silently praying to whatever god was listening to him that they'd manage to get through this unharmed.

In both an eternity and no time at all they reached their destination and unfortunately things were looking bad already.

The power was out all down the starboard side of Middle Cargo, but the light from the port side was enough to illuminate the fact that something was seriously, seriously wrong. For a start the far starboard wall was bulging in to a point where the cabling across it had snapped, and showers of sparks fountained forth from in darkness, silent to those in the suits. The crates of cargo had been sent tumbling, and blocked any clear progress across the deck, and there was the pulp of pulverise oranges all across the floor.

Jack saw Rik look around for a sign of the survivors before he set determinedly towards a dark far corner of the cargo bay

"There's someone down here?" Jack was expecting everyone to be safely holed up in the turrets.

"…was…" came Rik's eventual reply before he trudged back, "Not fast enough…"

"What... happened to them?"

"Head wound. Was very quick death. No pain. Happened too fast,"

The cargo bays were notoriously the second most dangerous place the ship; where cargo safety took precedent over crew safety, it wasn't uncommon for people to lose a limb or get damaged in here.

The crates had been securely strapped down, which wasn't much good when the entire starboard side had been buckled and bent into a metallic rock-face, but the hand-rails had long since broken on the various walkways suspended from the ceiling, and while there was always money for new crates, there was never enough for new ladders, or repairing the staircases.

There was no handrail and several rungs missing on the metal staircase between decks.

The hand rail had been shaken off by the impact and was hanging in the air, suspended by one lone, stressed bolt that was probably going to give at the next knock.

The rungs seemed to have been a problem for a while. They'd rusted through - the culprit another leaking water pipe, this one, by the colours in the rusty stain down the wall, sewage.

It was a surprise anyone ever got cleanish water around here.

Going up the staircase would have been tricky but possible dressed normally, but going three storeys up that in a space-suit was near suicide. Unless...

"We go up…" Rik suggested, it was amazing how calm he was being during this apparent crisis

"Everything goes up," he paused, "If we try walking up there we're risking our necks unnecessarily. I would guess that 90% of the freight in here's still strapped down. We could probably fly up there if Etienne had the gravity turned off."

"We go up," Rik repeated, in a tone that plainly said that was what he'd been suggesting

"Etienne, can you hear this? We need the gravity turned off for the cargo section." Jack grabbed hold of part of the staircase that still looked firmly bolted down, and motioned for Rik to do the same, but it looked like Rik was ahead of him again.

Rik was a bright guy; when they got back from this, he was getting promoted! Jack would see to it personally!

"Gravity switch off," Etienne's voice replied, "in 5…4…3…2…1…"

There was a sudden freedom, something it took practice not to tense rigid at when it came. Up and down suddenly became directional concepts rather than physical facts.

Jack let the buoyancy take him and using the wreck of the staircase to steer, pushed himself upwards. He looked over to the crates. Most of them were still a long way off. Floating around was harder than it looked, and steering far from an exact science, especially with the rusted-out staircase being full of sharp edges that would be fatal to an airtight space suit.

It was, however, faster than attempting to get there by walking in the heavy suits.

Jack, had this been any other circumstance, might've enjoyed the freedom of 'flight' but as it was he was too determined to think of anything except the survivors

The crates were slowly drifting forward, without speed, but with the slow and seemingly impossible transit of something very, very large and very, very heavy in flight. As were tiny glittering beads of orange juice and orange flesh, and one tiny red ruby that collided with Jack's visor to remind him why he was here: to save people, to shake off the dust from Earth. To travel, to forget…

…to help those people who were trapped…

"Almost." Rik's voice told him, they were getting closer to the trouble area

The next major obstacle was going to be going through the air lock. Middle Cargo had not been ruptured, thankfully, but Upper Cargo had. Someone with a lot more sense than their employers had designed the ship to withstand the forces of any one of the three cargo decks being ruptured.

Rik, it seemed, was strong for such a skinny guy, it almost seemed that he barely needed Jack's help. But there was no time to dwell on that, as with a great creaking noise, the safety hatch finally moved.

Jack, stuck in a space helmet, was completely oblivious to the creak, but not to the movement, and punted out of the way of the hatch door opening. With no gravity pulling down on the hinges it moved a lot freer than doors around here normally did, and a small overestimation of required force led to a large swing. Small particles of rust floated around him, and an orange bumped into him as he floated.

"I'll go first," Rik told him, "been here longer, know it a bit better" not waiting for Jack to reply, he moved quickly through the now-open doorway.

* * *

The scene that greeted them when they finally reached their destination could have been worse, but then again, it could have been a great deal better.

The two dead had been placed together, those who could stand were attempting to help those who were too injured. All in all, it was complete chaos

It was interesting to see Rik instantly pick out who was most injured and set to work on righting them as much as possible, enough to sustain them until they got them to safety…it almost made Jack curious about his past. If he hadn't also had to help the injured, he might've asked.

The important thing was that right now, nobody was going to bleed to death, and nothing looked like it was immediately going to kill them. The only problem was that the starboard turret had been destroyed and what remained of both crews was currently holed up in the port turret, with not enough water and air to sustain them for long. Now they were in relative safety they had removed their space-su

The important thing was that right now, nobody was going to bleed to death, and nothing looked like it was immediately going to kill them. The only problem was that the starboard turret had been destroyed and what remained of both crews was currently holed up in the port turret, with not enough water and air to sustain them for long. Now they were in relative safety they had removed their space suits and there was one thing that perturbed Rik, it smelled a strongly of fuel down here. This didn't bother Jack, as he was used to his bridge in the heat of the engine room, which reeked of fuel and oil and escaped exhaust and sweat and a whole miasma of other mechanical smells. But Jack had only been here a while, and his job didn't give him much chance to explore the cargo hold, which right now reeked with the stench of fuel vapours.

Rik finished patching up his second patient, a woman with dark hair and, currently, a sickly complexion, "Move quickly…" he yelled at Jack.

Something was not right

Jack was moving quickly. He was doing his best to make a make-shift splint for the arm of the battered gunner who had been thrown into the guns by the force of impact and quite clearly broken it. It was amazing what you could do with some cargo strapping and broken plastic piping, but she was still going to need it set properly once they got out of this mess. "We can't take them back with us - we don't have enough suits."

"There are ways. Must try," Rik tied a makeshift bandage around a deep wound on a man's arm. "Must move quickly"

"You got any idea how we're going to get all these people through Upper Cargo? That place is a train wreck and it's a vacuum." Upper Cargo had been all but destroyed, and there was a huge rent vertically down it that let the light of not-so-distant stars filter in like the wan glow of the full moon, the vast hold open and cavernously empty as the several hundred crates of god-knows-what had floated into the void.

The floor had folded like newspaper, girders had collapsed in, wires and pipes dragged everywhere, pipes were leaking all over the place, thankfully with most of whatever it was floating out into the vastness of space.

"…" Rik paused to consider, "another route possible. Air vents."

"I thought those had given out in Upper Cargo?" Jack had been mistaken in identifying what he'd seen. It had actually been the heating ducts that he had seen rent open and hanging down from the roof like the maw of a great hydra, not air-ducts as he had presumed. It was warm with body heat where he was, but with the engine turned off and the heating wrecked, the people back at the fore were starting to feel the chill.

Rik shook his head, "air vents are stable enough. Lead straight back to where we work. I know. It's not hard to navigate"

"So why did we take the hard way?" That would have been a lot more sensible. But, he guessed, nobody knew what state the air vents were in in Upper Cargo, until someone had been to Upper Cargo and seen.

Rik didn't a give him answer beyond a shrug and began helping people once more; those least injured were instructed to help the ones with the worst injuries.

Who knew the man was so organised and cool headed in a crisis?

Jack, having finished with his patient, and being the taller of the two, started pulling on the grille to the air-vent. Someone had removed the bolts a long time ago, but condensation had taken its toll, and, like a lot of things on this ship, had rusted in place. The bars of the grille bit into his hands and it wasn't going to give without a struggle, but with one final heave the grille didn't so much come out as break into several pieces rusted right through and fall out.

Rik nodded at him in approval; he made no move until the last of the injured had hobbled past him, and then motioned for Jack to do the same

Jack had fetched more strapping to pull along a make-shift sledge made from someone's coat and the remains of a chair Jack had broken; there was nothing they could do about the two dead; unlike Jack, they wouldn't be coming back.

It was a shame.

Jack passed up the straps into the air vent and then he and Rik were thrown to the ground by an explosion that roared and shook the ship. Fuel and electricity had mixed in Middle Cargo, and if fire got up here... it didn't bare thinking about. They had to block it somehow…what did they have to achieve that with?

There wasn't much hope sealing off the entire door, but they could shut off the air-vent. Thankfully these were laser turrets, so there was no live ammunition to worry about.

"Must be quick" Rik repeated to Jack; finally allowing some urgency to creep into his voice

Jack was being very quick. He'd smashed the last two remaining chairs, and was cutting off the upholstery, ripping it to shreds to get as far as flattening out the backs by jumping on them.

Rik helped as best he could, they really didn't have much time left, he knew that, but they could at least make sure everyone else was safe.

Jack stamped and jumped the chair-backs flat, and started lashing them together with the last of the cargo straps he'd found in Upper Cargo.

"Good. You are smart," Rik told him earnestly as they worked; he was starting to look ill, pale even under the layer of dirt that covered everyone who worked in the engine room with Jack.

Jack climbed into the vent, temporarily snagging the ends of the cargo straps on the remains of the grille to keep them in reach, and gave Rik a hand up. "Are you Ok?"

"Fine…" Rik mumbled, grabbing onto Jack's hand and allowing himself to be pulled up, "nothing new"

It didn't surprise Jack that the people onboard weren't all that healthy. They'd been breathing rancid air, drinking recycled water, and despite the cargo of fruit, eating cheap rations for months at a time. Rik and Jack braced themselves against the vent walls, pulling the temporary cover tight against the vent opening. Jack yelled down the vent, his voice tinny and echoed in the confines.

"Everybody keep moving, we'll be along in a minute".

"you know, if I had any, this place would be REALLY good for my pores," a way too familiar voice said in fascination just ahead of Jack, "it's really steamy in here"

"…my chest…" Rik said in what sounded like mild pain, "is tight"

"Kinda busy right now, Rio..." Jack mumbled; he had realised something was a lot more wrong with Rik than the man was letting on, and he'd seen all of this before.

"Just letting you know the rest are fine…watched them get out myself. I'm just waiting around now. But don't mind me I'm just your friendly local Reaper." she smiled again from beneath her hood.

"You…call?" Rik asked. He stopped. He had to; his chest was on fire.

"Rik..."

But the other man didn't answer, instead he gave a small sigh and lay down, hand still clutching over his chest.

"Rik!"

Jack knew that he tried everything to revive the other man, CPR, decompression of the chest, everything one did in these kinds of situations; but nothing happened. Rik lay there, unmoving.

And Jack suddenly felt as if everything he'd worked to forget, the whole reason he had left Earth in the first place; had suddenly come rushing back to stab him in the heart.

"Didn't say I was here for you, Jack" Rio pointed out, before looking to Rik's unmoving form, "Come along, Herr Doktor," she invited, holding out a hand in a friendly way, "I know some people who've been waiting for you…they've missed you a lot…"

Jack couldn't see what was going on between Rik and Rio; they were operating in another realm now.

It suddenly seemed very lonely in the vent.

The heat seemed more intense, the air smelt more rancid and smoky - Jack coughed - and the idea that he was in a vent in the crawl space between the rear decks and the cargo decks, in what was ultimately a broken metal box hurtling through the vast emptiness of space, and he was - in the absence of the other captain - and he still didn't know where the other man was - responsible for the lives everyone on board weighed heavily on his shoulders. He felt he had failed on four counts. The two who had died in the turrets, the cargo minder whose skull had been smashed in down in Middle Cargo, and now Rik, who had died beside him in a vent in this hot, dark, stinking corner of Hell.

"It was a heart attack in the end, you know," Rio's voice told him sympathetically.

"I know." Jack sighed. It was getting very hot in the vent, obviously the fire had really taken in the turret. If he let go of the door, a fireball would surge through the vent as the fire sought fresh air, if he didn't, he'd cook in a vent. The idea he had seemed exceedingly disrespectful, but it would work. Jack tied the strap around Rik's wrist.

Rik weighed considerably more than the makeshift door, and with the top slot of the old grille acting like a pivot, his weight would keep the door shut.

"When the fire's out I'll come back up here and give you a proper send-off, thank you. Thank you."

The second thank you was aimed at the air next to where Rio had last been seen.

He hoped Rik had heard.

TBC

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__ Let us have a moment of silence for Rik. Though he was a background character who was only with us for a short time, I'll admit, I was quite fond of him. Amen _


	8. Never Alone

Ianto looked around at the greyness that now surrounded him

It was seemingly unending, full of thick cool grey mist and it made him feel horribly, horribly lonely.

This place Azriel had simply said it was The Grey Place; not Heaven, Hell nor Purgatory; it was simply the in between place.

Though he had to admit that there was something about all of this grey mist that made him feel relaxed.

According to Azriel, the Grey Place was simultaneously nowhere and everywhere. It was where he was supposed to go if he felt run down; time wasn't just slow here, it was completely still. Apparently though it seemed empty apart from the mist, there were at least 10 other reapers there at any one time

Azriel had a whole Department now. He had been recruiting for a very long time, and the number of reapers grew in correlation to the numbers of mortals in the world. He drew from all truly mortal sentient species.

"Hello?" he tried, wondering if it was worth calling to anyone, could they hear him?

Ianto tried to concentrate on the idea of "Hello", of being a beacon of the idea of "Hello".

He had realised that most of the Reaper Powers he had encountered so far worked on concentration and visualisation.

He imagined waves of 'hello' coming from him like the old waves drawn over the BBC spire on rather old television, spreading slowly like great ripples out into the grey.

_"Hello"_

"Greetings" a voice said from behind him. It's owner turned out to be a boy about 15 years old; his hair was blond and messy and his big green eyes were shadowed as if with sickness. "I don't recall ever seeing you before," he said politely, "are you new?"

"Yes... I'm Ianto Jones. I signed up about a day ago." He held out a hand.

"I'm Matthew," the boy introduced himself and shook Ianto's hand, "I've been here a while…what brought you here?"

Ianto paused. It seemed terribly self-sacrificing and a bit pretentious to say he had given up Heaven so he could still keep in touch with Jack. "This afterlife seemed a better one than the alternative." It was true. Heaven wouldn't be Heaven without Jack.

"That's nice…but I meant how did you die? That is the standard icebreaker for our kind." Matthew's smile, like his complexion, was sickly but at least it was genuine

"I was poisoned. There were these aliens, and they wanted to take the children and…well, they filled the building with some sort of bio-weapon gas"

"I'm sorry to hear that. That's much more heroic than me,"

"I wouldn't say it was very heroic. I didn't achieve much in dying. What happened to you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I fell…well, I think I was pushed really, down the stairs at my boarding school."

"That's... that's horrible. I'm sorry someone killed you like that."

"I think it was a jealous someone or a hate-crime, I think they call them now?" Matthew tilted his head questioningly, "you see, I'm from the early 1900's…the whole reason I was even on the stairs was to um…" he blushed adorably, "I was going to my um…boyfriend's dorm…even though I had the most awful 'flu…"

"I had... have a boyfriend. That sort of thing really doesn't bother me. It would be highly hypocritical of me if it did and I - " He realised he was rambling; "Yes."

This was the strangest conversation to be having. He still hadn't quite got to grips with the whole being dead thing.

"Having it off with a mortal? Naughty." Matthew smiled again, "seems to be the done thing now"

"Well, he's not exactly mortal, or rather he is, but just not permanently so..."

"Oh? He's an immortal? That's much easier…like Rio being with an elf," the boy gestured around them, "how do you like The Grey Place?"

"It seems very lonely."

"Lonely?" Matthew looked around surprised, "I can see at least a dozen people. But that may be because I've been here such a long time that I'm good at finding them"

"Until you got here, all I could see was grey mist…You say you're from the 1900's - I'm guessing that's Earth time - how long have you been here in Reaper time?"

"About 3 years I think," came the reply, "of course, back in the real world, I'd still be dead anyway."

"Time really does run differently here, doesn't it?"

"Tremendously," the boy chuckled, "it can be fun in the right circumstances"

"Rio said something like that..."

"We make fun where we can find it is all, otherwise this job will get to you. So playing around in time, changing outfits, sometimes interacting with psychic mortals"

"Are you the people the mediums talk to?"

"Now and then, mostly they're ghosts. There is such a thing, but we don't question what goes on Up There, you know? It's Their business"

"Fair enough." Ianto paused. "Did you ever, in your travels, chance to meet someone just called "The Doctor"?"

"I don't think so, what does he look like?"

"Apparently it changes. Jack says he regenerates differently every time something kills him, unlike Jack, who just comes back the same. Always a man; likes odd coats and long scarves. Travels around in a police-box that isn't."

"No, I don't believe I have" Matthew shrugged, "why? Is he important?"

"I think he's very important in an odd sort of way. He's a time-traveller, a Time Lord, even. I was just curious, really. He seems a very interesting person. I heard he was human for a bit in the Edwardian period, stayed there a while, so when you said you've travelled through time and came from the 1900's..." he trailed off, embarrassed at rambling again, Anyway... how do you _see_ people here? All I can see is grey, and you. I can't even see the ground... is there a ground?"

"I think you have to know them…work with them…then you know how to look for them," Matthew told him contemplatively; "it's not uncommon to have to team up with other reapers if the job is large enough"

"Natural disasters and suchlike?"

"Plagues, earthquakes, floods," Matthew nodded

"Does that mean we know when places will flood before they do? Or where an Earthquake will strike before it happens?"

"We know…but only seconds before it happens" the boy rubbed one of his eyes tiredly, "no interfering. Takes a little getting used to, the human condition and all that"

No interfering. It was the curse of being a Reaper, the thing that made this duty a punishment that no angel would take willingly; that made it so Azriel could recruit from the ranks of purgatory.

Ianto realised that even reapers couldn't stop a flood or earthquake, not with only a few seconds warning - that was not time enough for people to evacuate, and the Reapers did not have the power to change the forces of Nature on such a scale. But it was not earthquakes, floods and hurricanes he feared, but knowing when someone would be murdered, and yet not being allowed to lay a finger to get someone out of the way of a shot, or to wrest the dagger from another's hand, or to knock a cup of poison before it reached the victim's lips.

"Don't worry about it," Matthew said, "in most cases, the clients end up somewhere much better."

"'Clients'... I was wondering what we called them."

"Is Azriel not finished with your training?" Matthew seemed mildly surprised…but then he took a deep breath of the mist around them and visibly relaxed slightly

"Azriel? Rio's training me. I've got the hang of making outfits change, and I'm working on phasing. Rio spent yesterday evening showing me Avalon and then she introduced me to her husband and son, and my training only started er... a few hours ago. What is this mist, exactly?"

"It's…grey mist…is rather like a sort of recharging substance for reapers, since we don't actually eat…and Rio's training you? That's unusual…hm…" Matthew took another deep breath, "not so bad"

Ianto sniffed it. "Mmm, smells good" He smiled. It did. Not Jack-good, but good in a different way, a relaxing, calm, mellow sort of good.

"Hey!" Rio's voice sounded, "hello…sorry…I'd've been here quicker but…you know how it is when you're working…hello Matthew!" she appeared through the mist

"Rio," Matthew smiled his sickly but sincere smile, "you seem well…I was just speaking with Ianto"

"And introduced him to the mist, it seems" she smiled and took a breath herself, "not bad today…"

The three of them stood in silence until…

"OK, what was I going to cover today? Phasing…clothing…transporting you seem to have got the hang of quite quickly…I think you now need to decide on a tool of the trade"

"I still can't walk through solid objects. I got my nose stuck in a door earlier."

"Well, we could work on that again…after this…I'm really knackered"

"I heard about that…a big accident aboard a starship but only 4 clients. Zara told me" Matthew sat back, oddly the mist supported his weight so it almost seemed as if he were sitting in a chair

Ianto felt like he'd swallowed a stone. Of course, Jack would survive anything, but there some things that are too horrific to want to survive. Like the time he was blown up...

It could have been a completely different spaceship; there were probably millions of them. Jack might be perfectly fine, and even if it was Jack's spaceship, Jack might have been completely uninvolved in the accident. The cargo could have fallen on some workers. Jack was probably fine; Rio would have said if he wasn't, right?

"Jack was fine," Rio informed him, as if she'd read his mind, "man's a hero though he doesn't feel like it; I'm wondering if this event will make him crave Terra-Firma once again"

"Or run further. This_ is_ Jack."

"This is true…"

"I've never met this Jack," Matthew said, "but the stories do get around here. He sounds like a fun individual"

"Fun is not the word…but I doubt he'll want to hang around that scrap yard"

"Jack's not... not fun. I like spending time with him. He can be an arrogant jerk, but he's a good man, an honourable man, and you can't say that a day with him is ever boring."

"You're so sweet I could eat you with a spoon, Ianto," Rio giggled, the mist had obviously kicked in.

Matthew gave him a lazy smile, "that sounds like someone to hold onto"

"Oh, I'm not letting go, despite being dead, despite a lot of things..." He trailed off.

"That's the old college spirit!"

"…way to show your age, Matthew,"

Meanwhile, Ianto was thinking of what to have as a weapon. "I have a question - once I get my weapon, will I get time to practice with it?"

"Practice time is easy," Rio told him; "the weapon should instantly feel like an extension of yourself, you'll know instantly how to use it. As for practice…that's partially what this place is for," she gestured to the expanse of grey mist, "it's OUR space in reality"

"Well," Ianto paused. "I thought I might as well be traditional, and have a sword too, but nothing too fancy or complicated."

The idea of historic weaponry still seemed like it was going to be a lot more complicated than hacking into the government computers or working out how to use alien devices where the instructions only came in inhuman sigils and were lost a long time ago anyway.

"Do you have any ideas of what style of sword you want?" Matthew asked interestedly, "I, myself, use a rapier"

"That's because you're a posh ponce," Rio told him affectionately, messing his hair further, "you're a smart bloke, Ianto, you could use…" she paused, "what're those swords they use for fencing?"

"Sabres," Matthew told her, sounding knowledgeable, "and I agree, he does have the stature for one"

"That's... a cavalry sword, right?" Ianto asked, feeling out of his depth.

Matthew seemed to have come from one of those private schools where all the boys learn fencing and boxing, which probably wasn't as anachronistic in the 1900s as it was in Ianto's time, and Rio... Rio just looked 100% dark warrior.

Ianto could shoot straight, drive fast and use a variety of interesting weapons that had come to the Torchwood armoury, he realised that he probably shouldn't be looking on this with such trepidation. It hadn't been half as difficult learning to shoot as he had imagined, and this would probably be similar, and Rio said that there was something magical about a Reaper's weapon that made it seem... instinctual, part of its owner.

"Well, think about it," she told him, "it'll…well, it's hard to describe…it'll feel right"

"You can always think up another" Matthew added, "there are some rather…odd weapons around amongst some of the other reapers"

"Do any of them actually have scythes?"

"Azriel," the other two said together,

"Oh and I think…this one man Jake does…"

"And Azriel lets him?" Ianto had guessed that Azriel had the scythe as a mark of being _the_ Angel of Death, or more correctly, the Archangel of Death.

"Well, to be fair his is a small hand held one," Matthew told him, pulling his reaper-robe slightly tighter around himself as if he were cold and trying to stave off a chill, "and it's made of steel. Azriel's is made of silver and I heard he can sharpen it on sunlight"

"…That's a character from that human author's book, Matthew."

"I guess it all adds to Azriel's legend and he probably doesn't complain."

"True"

"He can be a bit of an attention-whore"

"But it's not as bad as when Upstairs decides to put a show on"

"Let me guess, "angels in bight raiment", the "host of the seraphim", "rank on rank of angels... ...as the Light descendeth from the realms of endless day", I'm guessing Heavenly Choirs singing allellulia, lots of light, halos, beautiful wings and the clouds parting with shafts of brilliant light that illuminate the night like it's day time? "

"It'd give you a migraine…trust me," the reaper-girl said, "I always end up wearing my glasses afterward"

"You…wear glasses? Here?" he didn't think you'd need glasses when you were dead

"I wore glasses when I was alive, I have them here just for the phantom pain," Rio explained, rubbing her silver-flecked eyes as if in demonstration

"It comes under clothing" Matthew added, ", as long as you have a twig or something…"

"Anyway, back to the issue of the weaponry…are you decided yet?"

"For lack of a better idea, I'm going to go with the sabre."

"OK," Rio nodded and moved to stand behind Ianto, carefully holding his right arm by the elbow and extending his arm out, "visualise holding the weapon," she told him calmly but in a serious tone, "exactly like when you visualised your clothing, think about the weight and the look, pattern, sharpness; understand?"

"I thought we couldn't make things out of nothing..."

"You're not. We're surrounded by the mist, aren't we? It's not nothing."

"So that's what that stuff is? The raw materials for…our world? Ok..."

Ianto concentrated carefully; it took him a while to mentally design a suitable sword. He took the basic idea from an old sword from some battle centuries before his time he'd seen in an antique shop years ago, and modelled it on that, just modernised slightly.

His sword became one that was primarily functional, but there was something slightly executive about the curve of the guard, something about the black gloss of the glassy pommel that said someone more familiar with laptops and iPods than 18th century military had designed it.

Altogether it was a sabre that looked like it would go nicely with a sharp suit.

Judging by the keenness of the blade, a _very_ sharp suit.

The other two reapers both let out noises of approval at the choice.

"Spiffing, " Matthew said cheerfully

"Yay, Ianto!" Rio jumped slightly, "I knew you could do it!"

Matthew, to his surprise, gave him a shy kiss on the cheek as a 'well done' then almost vanished into the mist in embarrassment.

Well, that was awkward, thought Ianto, not simply because this shy, overly upper class, underage undead boy had just kissed his cheek rather unexpectedly, but because Matthew seemed more embarrassed than he did.

Rio coughed in such away that said she was covering up laughter, "right, yes…well done," she said, clearing her throat gently, "right. You have the weapon…now we need to work on the 'walking through walls without getting stuck"

"Agreed" He really didn't want to get stuck in anything further. Getting his nose stuck had been painful enough. It is very hard for the wood of a door and a solid nose to occupy exactly the same space, and the results of them trying to cohabit are painful.

"Let's go then, you can practice in the woods outside Avalon…hmm…hope we don't run into the centaurs…it's mating season…" Rio took Ianto's hand once again,

"Matthew, take care of yourself," she blew him a kiss; it seemed to be her customary parting.

"Be well," Matthew replied with a friendly wave.

"Ianto, visualise my kitchen? We'll start from there!"

Ianto closed his eyes and thought about the kitchen, and the table, and the work-top, and the electric toaster rigged to a bunch of carefully mounted but still rather home-made looking, crystal-batteries that glowed ominously and were apparently Ellandanen's handy work, and the smell of eggs and coffee and jam, and the rather elegant chairs, the flag-stone floor, the sun-catchers in the windows...

They landed with a thud in a pile of limbs.

"Next time…" Rio's voice said, slightly breathless from having his elbow buried in her sternum, "think about standing on the floor too…"

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ Sorry to keep you waiting, really it wasn't intentional. We haven't forgotten; we've just been really, really busy._

_Also, let's hear it for Matthew for being the cutest little stereotypical 1900's gay-schoolboy! (Kermit the Frog style 'Yay!' motion) He always makes me want to hug him._

_**Jack:**__ You know; you two didn't give me any lines in this chapter…_

_**Kate:**__ You're not in it. Can't give you lines in a chapter you're not in. It makes no sense._

_**Jack:**__ Aww, c'mon, you gotta let me do something! (standard-Jack Harkness charming smile of charming-ness)_

_**Kate:**__ (sighs) Fine. You can go stand off-screen and help me write TF2 smut until we finish the next chapter._

_**Jack:**__ Now THAT'S an assignment! X3_


	9. Friends in Unexpected Places

_**Kate's Note:**_ _Telling you now: this one goes on for a while because the Welsh are very chatty people. I know because I'm one of them._

_I'd also like to take minute to send out a request for some fanart of this story. Just draw your favourite scene so far; it'll give us some encouragement to write faster and I'll link it in my bio. Thanks._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

The forest felt like a hark back to the times before humans realised that wood could be used for building houses and creating fires. The trees and plant life grew thick, healthy and wild. All around was the scent of things growing, the sound of birdsong and generally things living…not to mention the slight magical aura that perpetuated the place like a cool mist.

It wasn't surprising, considering there were trees here that seemed to be older than living memory, still growing healthily and flowering.

Rio had checked around for centaurs in the area (apparently they disliked taking 'no' for an answer during mating season and didn't mind too much what species potential mates happened to be)

The area seemed clear. Oddly enough, there weren't even old centaur tracks, except on the path, and a centaur keeping to the path is a rare creature indeed.

"Rightie-oh," the female reaper said, "we'll work on phasing…this is also a good place for learning to fly I think" she gestured to the clearing they were standing in, "phasing first though, this tree," she pointed to a slim tree to their right, " walk through it, act like it's not there, just keep thinking that the way's clear"

Ianto had slightly improved his phasing during the day. He tested this first by waving an arm through the tree, actually looking at his arm now rather than screwing his eyes shut to keep disbelief at bay, and then shut his eyes and gingerly walked forward, and then kept walking. Amazingly, he walked through the tree without incident, but not the root sticking up from the ground after it, which he then tripped over.

"Doing better," Rio informed him as she helped him up, "at least you got through it without getting stuck. Do you want another go?"

"As long as I don't get my suit muddy this time"

"It's just mud, Ianto, it washes off you know. And just think, you're getting for free what a lot of people pay fifty-quid a pop for in Spas"

"People don't tend to spa fully dressed"

"You never know…and are you always this uptight? Don't you ever relax even the slightest?" this wasn't said in a mean way though, just a curious one; "Besides, say this with me, dirt is good," so saying Rio leaned up a smeared a blob of forest floor mud onto the end of his nose

"I'm not uptight," he defended, wiping the mud off his nose with his hand, "I'm just finding this a whole lot harder than I expected and it's frustrating."

"Expect the unexpected, it's all you can do," she squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and checked around them again, "thought I heard something…hm, must be hearing things…try again, anyway. Then maybe we can work on flight"

Ianto walked back through the tree, and then backwards through the tree, missing the root he'd previously tripped over.

"I'm starting to get the hang of -OW!"

He'd walked backwards into a low branch.

"Do I have to concentrate on the specific thing I want to phase through, or can I just make myself immaterial so I don't walk into unexpected things? If I'm going to walk through a wall, I may not know what's on the other side."

Rio winced in sympathy, "you can just make yourself immaterial, it's the same principal as phasing through things; no fear," Rio's London accent showed as she uttered those last two words

After a while, Ianto realised he could still see the landscape with his eyes shut. Maybe it was the magical aura that saturated the place, but he was starting to be able to make out the contours of the landscape - and realise he was walking into the hill - and see the vegetation, although the vegetation appeared as mist or cloud rather than the forms of plants.

Initially, he froze, and the ground became solid and he rooted in place, flailing to maintain proper balance against momentum, but then he stopped flailing, took a second to collect himself, and slowly started phasing again so he was no longer knee-deep in solid rock; a fairly large shape lumbered casually past him, black and…rather like a large dog in shape; though it didn't seem to be paying him much heed

"Ianto" Rio called, "You're doing great! Really well! But be careful anyway!"

If he fell off a hill or onto a hole in the ground, he wouldn't get hurt but it was still a scary experience to fall without flight!

He took another circumnavigation of the glade and then walked over to where Rio was a slightly more solid object in the gloom of his mind's eye, and to where he hoped he wasn't going to be standing in anything solid.

The air rustled behind him, the…whatever it was, was obviously chasing something, hopefully something that wasn't him

Rio hugged him tightly in excitement once he reached her position once more, "You did it, Ianto!"

He opened his eyes. He actually had. "I think I _am_ getting the hang of this."

"I think it's because you're pretty clever," she told him, "you catch on fast. Next, flight…umm, I think I should ask the boss before we try that one"

"…why?"

"Because I don't know if it'll be the same for you as it is for me. Yours aren't a punishment after all…" Rio rubbed the back of her head in obvious discomfort

"Punishment?"

The reaper girl sighed.

"OK…**I'm** a reaper because I killed myself. My family died in a car accident and I slit my own throat in a fit of depression," she pointed to the black velvet choker around her neck, "Not the brightest move I've ever made, I'll admit …Azriel gave me two choices because of the circumstances under which I died. Either go to Hell, literally, I'm Catholic, it's what we believe in, or work off my little debt to Heaven by doing this job

"So that's what Jack meant by taking "Azriel's Deal". But surely God wouldn't have really sent you to Hell?"

"It tends to work on what you believed in. As I said, I was Catholic in life; I was always taught that the punishment for suicide was to be sent to Hell where you get torn apart by demons every day…I prefer reaping if that's the alternative. But I deviate from the point; I don't look as did when I was alive, I don't have that privilege. That and…when my wings manifest…it hurts. A lot"

This posed a small problem for Ianto - if his idea of Paradise was being in Jack's arms, does that mean he would have ended up there anyway, or do not even the Angels know exactly what happens in the afterlife. Azriel said he knew Heaven existed, but had never been there, and seemed to hint he had visited Hell, so the places existed, but Azriel had said Ianto was going to Elysia, which was an Ancient Greek concept, yet he wasn't at all Hellenic, but maybe the Ancient Greeks believed in it enough to mean that it happened to people they believed would have earned it... it was all too confusing, and it seemed that one only really knew once it had happened, and by then it was too late.

At least Azriel was pretty certain on the nature of his existence, and a certainty was better than a promise that might not come true.

"Azriel has no idea what Heaven is like anymore. I'm leaning towards believing that Heaven is where you make it."

"If that's true, then I signed up in complete futility."

"You like being with Jack, he makes you happy and you like knowing that he's alive and well and that you can go to him any time, sounds like Heaven to me,"

"So... I'm in Heaven, by being a Reaper? That's... God being Ironic."

Rio probably would have continued…if something hadn't tackled Ianto from behind and he ended up sprawled on the forest floor, face in a bluebell patch, with a rather large black panther on his back.

"…you have a panther on your back!" Rio said in partial amazement

"Uh Nnthr??" Replied Ianto through a bluebell and a lot of leaves.

"Uh…I think it's tame…it's wearing a collar,"

Said panther was indeed wearing a brown leather collar around its neck. It didn't seem to want to eat Ianto, it was acting more like an overgrown kitten; from the way it was nuzzling the back of his head playfully

"Here boy," Rio called, patting her hip in that beckoning way people used on a dog; it had the desired effect, as the big cat stalked off and sat down expectantly

"Are you OK, Ianto?" for the second time that day she helped him up from the ground

"I think I broke something..." He fished around. "Yes, a cufflink."

"Well that's easy enough to fix…I'm more concerned about you getting pounced by a big cat not indigenous to the area. This is forest. Even with a forest of magic, I don't think it can support jungle cats,"

The panther had walked back up to Ianto and was butting its head against his leg, seemingly in a bid to get scratched behind the ears

Ianto, meanwhile, was looking in astonishment at this large black cat trying to nuzzle him. "Nice kitty, nice kitty...Maybe it escaped from a zoo and eats centaurs?"

"It'd be more likely for the centaurs to eat _him_"

The big cat's throat started rumbling in what was unmistakably a happy purr

"He likes you, anyway, has he got a tag, a name?"

"Err... definitely a collar, can't see if there's a tag. And I thought centaurs ate grass."

"That's normal horses. Centaurs are omnivores, hunters. Look, are you ok if I leave you alone with it for a moment? I need Ellandanen on this…he knows more about this forest than I do," she noted his look, "I'm from London; I know nada about big cats! I won't be long, I hope…"

"You're leaving me with the panther?"

"Doesn't look like it's going to eat you,"

The panther was still rubbing itself against the Welshman and purring like a well-maintained speedboat in high gear

"Fine, but if you can only find some of me when you get back, look in the panther for the rest!"

"You're so dramatic, I won't be a moment" she vanished…leaving him alone with the big cat; it paused briefly in its nuzzlings to look up at him…bright blue eyes looked into his without an ounce of intent of eating him. Then it suddenly grabbed the edge of his suit jacket and began pulling, as if trying to get him to follow it

"Fine, fine, I'm coming, but lets not go too far away, Rio will be back soon, and I don't know my way around the forest." Ianto was aware that talking to a panther was probably utterly pointless and that even if the panther could understand people or even talk, it was unlikely to understand English.

The big cat kept a hold of his jacket, leading him along a trodden path until they came, to Ianto's surprise, to an old stone and thatch cottage, it had a wooden fence and a latched gate around a large thriving garden, a lot of herbs, vegetables and fruit, more than he'd ever seen in one place, were growing there. Smoke was coming lazily from the chimney of the cottage and there were signs on the gate. He stopped to inspect them and his eyebrows rose.

All of the signs were written in Welsh

'Please Close the Gate', 'Please Knock and Wait', 'Please Do Not Steal the Fruit', and so on.

All of it in a neat hand and all of it in Welsh

The panther neatly leapt the gate and looked back at him expectantly

"Rio was right. The Welsh got to Avalon... I wonder if this is connected to the rift at the old hub. If things can come through to us, maybe, maybe people have been going the other way."

The panther pawed the ground impatiently and gave him what could only be a 'hurry up!' look

"Fine, fine, I'm coming, I hope whoever lives here has a telephone so I can call Rio and tell her I've found out where the panther came from."

Ianto looked around with slight apprehension. In all his years working at Torchwood, he'd come to realise that trusting animals behaving oddly completely could be a very big mistake, especially if they seem to come from a slightly too picturesque perfect cottage in the middle of a sentient forest just like a story-book witch. If there was a little old lady in a pointy hat living here...

The big cat started scratching at the door of the cottage, like a pet cat wanting to be let in.

_"Peidiwch 'neud 'na!"_ a voice called, it was female, _"rwy'n dod nawr"_

The front door opened slowly, eventually revealing a young woman in an old-fashioned green dress; her hair was brown but oddly streaked with green that matched her dress.

"Flox," she said, noticing the panther first; kneeling down and scratching its ears, "where've you been?" then she looked up and noticed Ianto; she stood and smoothed down her skirt, "Ah…Hello," she said politely, "how can I help you today?"

"I found yo- err your panther found me."

"Oh, I'm sorry, was he being a pain? I'm afraid he gets a bit lonely out here at this time of year. There's only me;" she looked him up and down, "that's an interesting outfit, are you from Albion?"

"Cardiff, actually, from another Wales..."

The girl blinked at him, "there's another?"

"That was my reaction when I found out about this place."

"Oh! You're from through the fairy gates, correct?"

"Sort of... Where I come from I think your 'fairy gates' are called 'rifts', but that's not how I got here."

"Then how-?" something from inside the cottage whistled, it sounded like an old-fashioned whistle kettle, "that'd be my kettle, why don't you come in and have some brew with me? Tell me about it?" she invited politely

"Erm, Ok, but Rio went back to Avalon, and she'll come looking for me and she doesn't know I'm here, do you have a phone?"

"What's a phone?"

"It's a way of talking to people who aren't actually there that uses electricity, it comes from my world..."

"…Like channelling spirits?"

"No... like talking to alive people who are very far away, a bit like when you have two cups and a piece of string, except the cups are special and they send the talking down metal wires instead of string with a kind of energy…I don't think you have one anyway, so it's probably not much use me trying to explain." He paused. They probably did have /some/ means of long-distance communication here. "If I wanted to get a message to Avalon in a hurry, like within a few minutes, how would I do that here?"

He paused again. "And would the centaurs really eat the panther?"

"No," she answered flatly, "because no centaur around here would be silly enough to eat my familiar. Now please, come in?" she turned and headed inside, the whistling was getting insistent

"I see." He opened the gate, and having observed the sign, closed it carefully, heading cautiously into the house. "Is there any way I can contact Avalon? Only I don't want to worry my boss..."

The house interior was…well, it was stereotypically witch-like, all stone and wooden beams, bundles of herbs and other plants hung alongside various crystal trinkets which threw beautiful kaleidoscope patterns of light onto the stone slab floor

"I have a crystal ball," the witch told him, removing the kettle from the open fire in what had to be the living/dining room, holding the cookware item by the handle with a thick cloth and setting it onto a stone tablet on an old but sturdy wooden table.

"Really?"

"Right there on the shelf," she gestured to a shelf in the corner, it was full of old books, some more knickknacks, and the aforementioned crystal ball.

The panther stalked past him and curled up in a large wicker basket beside the fire

"Does it show the future?"

"How silly"

"Silly?"

"Seeing the future is hard, it's not a set path. The present, however, is easier because it's already happening." she produced two mugs from a cupboard and filled them with water from the kettle, "do you want some Brew? It's fresh today"

"If the future's not set, then how do I have a boyfriend from there?"

"Excuse me?"

"My boyfriend's from the 51st century by my world's counting, and right now my world is somewhere in the 21st, so he travelled back in time about 3,000 years..."

"Hm, interesting concept," the girl looked thoughtful, "I'd no idea such a thing was even possible. Seems I must revise some of my books information"

"Maybe some things get fixed once they make a link... maybe that's partly why he's a Fixed Point. I don't think time works in a nice cause-and-effect way anymore. I used to, once, when the world made sense..."

"Do sit down?" the girl gestured to an old, patched but comfortable looking sofa, also near the fire and the big cat's basket, "I used to think the world made sense…of course, I was 5 years old at the time…"

"What happened when you were 5?"

"My magic manifested itself and accidentally turned a neighbour's best roses into carnivorous plants when she made me angry" she had the decency to blush at the memory

"Oh my... Magic you say?"

She nodded as she handed him an earthenware mug filled with what smelt like tea, "Isn't there magic where you come from?"

"Not exactly, no. Jack doesn't seem to stay dead, but apparently that's science, not magic. There's a lot of very advanced science, and I'm starting to think magic is just science the scientists haven't explained yet, and science is just magic with long words attached."

"That's a very mean thing to say to a witch when you're on her territory," the girl told him lightly

"I didn't mean it as an insult, I'm sorry, I...I don't know much about how magic in your world works. Maybe what... we used to call magic in our world is a different thing," he paused as what she'd actually said sunk in, "You're a witch? As in a Wiccan?"

"No. As in 'a witch'. Someone who performs magic and healing," she corrected, "you can call me Kathros."

"Wiccans heal and do mag... Your world is really rather different to mine, isn't it. I would have thought it would have dawned on me with the elves and centaurs and the panther..."

"He's called Flox" Kathros said, she seemed pretty calm despite having been 'insulted', "and I don't think I caught your name?"

"I'm Ianto, Ianto Jones."

He waved at Flox, who yawned, and offered a hand to Kathros, who shook it gently,

"Very nice to meet you. Would you still like to use my crystal ball?"

"Ah, yes, please. I need to find Rio. I don't want her to loose me and get in trouble with Azriel."

"You work for the angel of death?" the witch headed to the shelf and picked up the crystal from its resting place, "here," she handed it to him, "focus on who you're contacting, it's not too hard, I know Azriel has one somewhere"

"I work for Azriel, yes... Do you know him?"

"We've met. A birth can become a death quite quickly at times…"

Ianto trailed off. He was getting better at this 'focus and visualise' thing with every supernatural endeavour. He looked into the glass - a bit different from closing his eyes - and concentrated on thinking about Rio.

The reaper girl appeared in the ball, apparently reflected in something on Ellandanen's desk, she looked slightly worried and kept biting down on her thumbnail

"Rio's going to need a manicure at this rate..."

_"…so not bad? Just a pet? Good! Excellent!" Rio said softly, "thanks, love"_

Danen was actually vaguely surprised Rio hadn't heard about The Wild Witch. He had assumed her existence was common knowledge, and if all else, that the Wild Witch would have heard from the locals about the undead girl with blue hair living unmarried with the World's Oldest Elf, on account of the City refusing to ratify a marriage with someone who is legally dead.

But then again, both women were somewhat out of touch with local gossips due to respectively their jobs and the location of their homes.

'Danen had met her once or twice before... He had known her grandmother, and only remembered the Wild Witch before she was the Wild Witch, back when she was just a rather magical little girl. Being technically an ecomancer himself, 'Danen had a good collection of books on various forms of nature magic, and had given a copy of one to her as a birthday present once...

_"So he'll be OK? I feel bad for leaving him on his own, but it seemed to like him a lot…"_

"You can speak into it," Kathros told Ianto, tapping the crystal ball, "it does quite well at carrying sound"

"Er, Hello Rio! I'm at... a cottage in the middle of the woods with a witch called Kathros, and I'm OK."

It was almost worth it to see the reaper girl jump almost a foot in the air at the unexpected voice.

_"What-? Ianto? Where are you?"_ Rio asked, looking around

"I'm at the Witch's cottage, in the forest."

_"OH! Then how…?"_ he saw Rio look to her husband for help

_"It's a crystal ball"_

_"…you have one?"_

Kathros giggled lightly behind Ianto

"Kathros does, I'm using hers - I guess 'Danen must have one somewhere..."

"He has a paperweight on his desk, I remember seeing it when I went to the library…"

"Oh…" Rio's face came into view, "trippy. Are you alright Ianto? I see you didn't get eaten!"

"I'm fine, Flax -the panther- decided to lead me to the cottage by the jacket-hem..."

"…that's 'Flox'," the witch corrected him

"Why would he-? Well, I'm glad you're alright. Do you need me to collect you?"

"I don't know why Flox led me here, and I don't know how to get back to Avalon."

"I can take you," the witch offered, "I have elf friends and Flox could use the walk."

"That would be very kind of you, thank you." Ianto was starting to wonder about the panther. It struck him as slightly odd that a panther would want to lead him back to its home like that. "Why did Flox bring me here?"

"He's thinks I need company," she said with a shrug, "and apparently you smell like Brew"

"I was making tea and coffee for 'Danen's visitors earlier."

Some people from the Academy had gone to visit 'Danen about loaning several illuminated books from him for an exhibition of illuminations from around the universe.

"Oh…" the witch looked towards her pet and a few moments of silence passed between them, "he thought you were magical, like me. He says you smell like Brew and Home"

"I'm a trainee Reaper, so I guess I'm vaguely magical. I've been learning how to phase through things and change my outfits, but that's about as far as I've got. Oh, and they gave me a magical sabre, but that's in 'Danen's umbrella stand at the moment."

"Ah," she nodded in understanding, "I see…silly panther. Please, excuse me; I need to find Flox's lead. It's a deal I made with the Avalonian Council and my own Village."

"I've discovered magical powers are a lot harder than they look."

"What made you think they would be easy?" she wanted to know as she went through what was undoubtedly a cloak-cupboard in the far corner of the room

"Well, I didn't think they'd be easy, it's just when Rio walks through doors and things it looks like she's not even trying. I thought it was just something Reapers did naturally, and then I had a go, and realised it required concentrating and thinking and visualising. Rio says I think too much and I have to just trust that I can walk through the door."

"I don't know anything about reaping," the witch held up a lead made of the same brown leather as the big cat's collar; said big cat rose from his basket and trotted obediently but obviously grudgingly to her side and allowed her to attach the lead to his collar; "I only know what I was taught myself, but the principals seem to be the same. It takes hard work to make it look easy."

Ianto rubbed his head where the branch had hit it. "I found that out the hard way."

Rio had said that injuries to his new body shouldn't hurt, except for magical ones. He guessed that because the forest was magical, the tree was, and so it hurt.

"Do you want me to look at it for you? It'll probably heal up alright on its own but there's no harm in a second opinion"

"Yes please - Rio said that things shouldn't hurt now I'm dead, but that actually does. I walked backwards into this big old tree in the forest."

"Hmm, stay still, let me see," she looped the panther's lead to a chair and very carefully checked his head, her hands were very gentle but professional against his scalp "You've a bump there, it looks a bit bruised but its not bleeding…Takes a lot to hurt a reaper, magical injuries, summoning circles and so on…this forest is pretty well protected by magic of its own so it's not surprising that you got hurt here when you weren't concentrating"

"Just how magical is this forest? Rio had called it magical, but I initially thought that was because it had elves and centaurs and such living in it, but then when I was phasing through things, and I had my eyes shut, I could... sort-of see things around me still."

"Well, my ancestors have been living here for a long while, the centaurs live here, there's Halflings too, little devils keep stealing my vegetables, and it's soaked in magic" the witch disappeared through a door and returned a few moments later with a glass jar, full of something yellow that smelt of lemon and cinnamon when opened, she applied some to the bump on his head, "and it makes sense that you'd see around you, I doubt the forest would want you to get hurt or for you to trample anything here…how's that, does it feel better?"

"Ooo, yes, thank you." It did feel a lot better. Whatever the stuff was, it was very soothing. "I guess I really did hear the trees talking to each other, then."

"They talk all the time, they talk to me sometimes too…I'm bound to this place." she screwed the top back onto the jar and handed it to him, "keep it. Arawn alone knows when you'll need it again."

"Thank you." Ianto had ended up with a laptop bag being used as a satchel. It currently had his notebook in it - which had "Don't think too hard" underlined on the front page and in which he had written a whole lot about useful things to remember about phasing, and in which he was going to have to write about being able to see the forest - the pen Azriel had lent him, and now the jar of lemon scented soothing goo.

The laptop bag had started off as a battered leather satchel 'Danen had given him, and he had been practicing his ability to alter items on it, and turned it into a black leather laptop-bag style satchel. Rio had taken to calling it his manbag.

"Are you ready to go?" Kathros asked, once again picking up the panther's lead

"Yes, and thankyou again for looking at the bump."

"It's my job," she said modestly, but still smiled in a pleased way, she obviously didn't get many compliments, "come on, follow me." she opened the door and held it there, waiting for him to go past her

Ianto walked out onto the path. He decided that it probably wasn't going to be a good idea to try and phase through anything here - all sorts of magical spells probably protected it.

Kathros closed her door but he noted that she didn't lock it at all and then closed the gate neatly behind her, before she took some blue chalk from a hidden pocket in her dress and drew a symbol on the gatepost

She gave a small satisfied nod and then she and the big cat lead the way along the path

"It must be a good neighbourhood. You couldn't leave the door unlocked where I live. Not long before I died, some thieving little brats drove off in my car, and it was triple dead-locked...Then my brother-in-law threw bricks at it trying to stop them..."

"Answer me this: Who would dare rob a witch's house?" she asked with a coy little look, "though the hobbits will steal from my garden but that's harmless enough...isn't it dangerous to throw bricks at a cart?"

"Good point. And yes, it broke the rear windshield, and had they crashed someone could have got seriously hurt."

"That's horrible…what's a windshield?"

"It's a bit of glass at the back, so you can look through it and see what is behind you, stops you reversing into people."

"…how do the horses hear the commands?"

"Where we come from, the cars have an engine that burns oil to go forwards rather than horses. We used to have horses pulling ours too, but then about 70 years ago or more, the ones with engines started coming in."

The witch gave him a polite but blank look at the description of 'burning oils to power engines'

This time, without being tugged at by a panther, Ianto was paying more attention to the forest. It was ancient, it was dense, and it was very, very green. "Some of these trees are nearly four meters across! How old is this place?"

"Older than living memory"

"Older than 'Danen's living memory?"

"I'd assume so, I'm not certain how old he is, but he was apparently friends with my grandmother at one point"

"He said he's been here since before the wood-elves came. He didn't really seem to want to talk about it."

"I don't know much about him, I've only met him a few times and most of those were when I was a little girl. I only know bits and pieces that Grandmother told me"

"Fair enough."

"Grandmother told me he's a very sad individual, or he was, that might've changed. There's something wrong with his arms and that there was a big fire in the library when he was young, I mean actually young, not just young in appearance"

"He seems happy enough with Rio. A bit geeky, but fairly happy."

"Geeky? Oh Flox, don't do that!"

The big cat was pulling on his lead, having spotted a squirrel he might want to chase

"What does a panther eat out here?"

"Usually whatever he wants, I feed him my own food…Flox, please you'll pull my arm off!" the big cat paused, had the decency to look sheepish and resumed walking

"How big is this forest? I went up the spire in the city, and I could just see trees right up to the horizon."

"It ends, one way at least, along the road to Avalon, the other…I've lived here most of my life and I still haven't explored all of it"

"The only forests like that left in my world are in America. Wales and England where I'm from have mostly been cleared."

"That's so sad…doesn't the screaming drive you all insane?"

"Screaming?"

"They scream…when they're cut down. They scream and don't ever stop," the witch covered her ears, as if in sympathy

"They were cut down hundreds of years before I was born. A lot of people aren't happy about it though, but... since the aliens started coming, people have had other things to worry about. That was my previous job, I used to help deal with the aliens..."

"Aliens? You mean the ones that come through the fairy gates?"

"Yes, although sometimes they come from the sky, too."

"Oh, like dragons!"

"Not exactly, they fly from other planets in big metal ships, and occasionally try and destroy the planet, or enslave its inhabitants or, eat them, or something..."

…And she was giving him that blank look again. Wasn't there ANY form of 21st century technology here?

"Imagine ships, like for sailing across the sea, but then give them wings instead of sails, and have them maid out of metal, and flying by very complicated ways even I don't understand, and then imagine the ship is about the size of a small village, and completely full of people from far away planets intent on trying to kill you and destroy your people."

"Aliens."

Kathros was silent, the fingers of her left hand pressed contemplatively against her mouth as they walked, Flox's ears flattened against his head (really, this didn't seem to be a normal panther)

"…like Zeebles," she said finally, in a quiet voice

"Jack mentioned those once... are they from this world?"

"I don't think so," she told him, "they turned up awhile ago, destroyed half of the Empress' land; left people dead, dying, homeless or worse; we don't even know what they came for"

"Jack mentioned them doing that somewhere else. Strange fleshy squid-men, he said they were, and demented fighters. Did they go away again? Did the survivors recover?"

"…They're gone. The survivors…survive. There's as much aid given as possible, from everywhere. Even here. It's why there's an Alliance now, in case it ever happens again"

"You think they'll come back?"

"Stranger things happen and frequently do; this world was built on magic after all." the witch looked down at her familiar, trotting along between them, "are there cats like Flox where you're from?" she asked curiously

"Black panthers? Yes. Not many. They live wild in great forests, but people cut down the forests to make things, and now there very few left. I've seen some kept in zoos, but even where they're given whole fields they look... sad."

Ianto felt a bit like he was talking down to someone smarter than himself, but it was hard to know how to phrase things in ways that would cross such a vast cultural divide.

"But there's more of them…Flox is the only one of his kind on this world. He came through a fairy gate when he was a cub"

It occurred to him that the forest was acting oddly, becoming darker or lighter as the witch spoke, depending on how her mood seemed to be…this world really was strange

"Yes, there are more of them. The spotty kind are more common, but sometimes they're born completely black, instead."

"I think I'd like to see your world one day,"

"It would probably make you very unhappy. It's not a very nice place anymore."

"Because they cut down trees?"

"It's worse than that, there's pollution so bad it has messed with the weather, the rivers are poisoned, the cars I mentioned earlier - they're very useful, but it's not very clean. Since I've been with the elves, and how clean and peaceful and harmonious their city is, I've come to realise how... ugly and... tainted... my world has become."

"I'm just curious to see it, my great-uncle told me about it…vaguely, but he told me," unthinkingly she fingered a small stylised tree-shaped brooch embedded with amber that was pinned to her dress, "though I know it'd probably make me ill"

"This forest is very special. I've never been anywhere like this. I imagine this must have been how where I came from was, centuries ago..."

"Uncle told me it reminded him of when he was a young boy when he first came here. He liked oak trees" she gestured around…

Yes…there were lots of oaks.

"Oaks live a long time, don't they?"

"So did he; he used to try and tell me he was famous in another world"

"What was his name?"

"Merlin," she replied with a shrug as if it were the most normal thing in the world

"MERL- " He nearly shouted. "Merlin, and I'm guessing he was a wizard..."

"What else would he be?"

"Well, I used to be a Torchwood special agent, but my Father was a ma- sold clothes, so he could have been anything, it's just I think... I think your uncle came from my world, but from a long time ago, so long ago that where I come from people think it's just a myth, legends that never happened..." He wasn't prepared to lie to her. He got the feeling that she deserved honesty, and that lying would be futile anyway.

But he wasn't going as far as mentioning Debenhams... not that she'd probably know what that was. He highly doubted that even McDonalds or Starbucks would be as enterprising as to start a store here, let alone Debenhams...

"…so he's become a story they tell children at night? My grandmother too if that's the case" she didn't seem sad, just thoughtful

"Pretty much. My world... has traded magic for technology, it seems."

"…and one day we will be gone, and the world will be poorer for it. They will seek, but will not find and then they shall say 'where are the Children of the Earth?' "

"The Children of the Earth?"

"Elves, pixies, witches and the like"

"Elves are from Earth? But we don't have any - that I know of - I had never seen anything like them before Avalon. They're all so beautiful and serene... well, beautiful and mostly serene."

"They're good at hiding; it's likely they're still there, but are good at blending in. They do it so well at times"

"I suppose Jack hasn't changed in 2,000 years, and most people wouldn't notice he's not... ordinary, and if Torchwood hadn't recruited him, I don't think anyone would know."

"You keep mentioning this Jack…is he someone special to you?"

"My... er... boyfriend. My partner."

He really hoped that this world wasn't as medieval as to burn people or something for that... mind you, the witch hadn't been burnt. But that might just because no one had found her in the middle of the forest yet. It seemed fine among the elves, but these were humans out here…and he had already mentioned once that he had a boyfriend and she hadn't reacted badly…unless she'd assumed he'd mean a male friend, not a lover.

"That's nice," was all she said, "I think everyone should have someone special"

"Me too."

He was missing Jack again already.

It was what?

A day now?

Time worked oddly, but he'd come back in the morning, forgotten about the "ghost suit" thing and ended up hiding in Jack's coat (which he still had... Jack was going to want that back) and then gone to The Grey Place - which was less dizzying than when he had arrived in Avalon - and then spent the afternoon in the woods.

So it wasn't even a day.

Having wandered along thinking for a few paces jack spoke vaguely to Kathros, and vaguely to remind himself to buy a watch. "I need a watch. A watch counting my time, because swapping between all these relative times is going to leave me jetlagged or something."

"Can I even get jetlagged now I'm a Reaper?"

"I have no idea, I've never been able to ask Azriel"

He was surprised she'd heard of "jetlagged" - she probably didn't know what a jet was, but it must have been a word that had come from those who came through rifts - "fairy gates" they called them here - as world-hopping really messed with his body-clock and probably did the same to anyone else who did similar, and travel by native means on this world would probably entail carriages and sailing and other rather slow means that took several months but didn't involve jetlag.

He let this go as the witch, at his prompting, began regaling him with stories about her great-uncle.

No storybook anywhere in his world had ever described the wizard so human, just a person in his profession. It was strange but informative and the witch seemed to find pleasure in talking about the lessons she'd had with him whilst learning her craft and Ianto found that the time passed fairly quickly

They soon arrived at the bridge that led to the gates into Avalon

"I hate sentries," the witch mumbled, "I always feel as if I'm on trial"

"The elves have sentries? Is that to protect Avalon from intruders, or intruders from The Hedge?"

"A little of both, I think" she gestured towards two elfin guards, both of whom were dressed in ornate armour, probably more for show than actual combat, "I have friends here but…a lot of elves don't like humans. Think we're wasteful and stupid"

"Sometimes, I think the elves may be right." Avalon was in such stark contrast to modern Earth that walking around there made him feel like he was committing desecration just by standing there.

Kathros gave him a hurt look at that remark, reminding him that she was still human, Flox rubbed gently against her as if in comfort and shot him a look.

"Well the humans like me from my wor - well, the humans like I was - the.. do I even have a species? Anyway, I'm sure the people here aren't half as bad as they were back where I'm from."

Ianto had completely missed the point as to why the witch looked wounded at the cat was glaring at him.

"You don't even have internal combustion engines here, and I don't think you've got global warming and accelerated climate change and nuclear irradiated forests with deformed animals and poisoned ground... Much nicer people altogether...The elves are so _clean_ - how do they manage it?"

"I've been friendly with an elf-man all of my life and I still don't know the answer," she led him up towards the gate, the sentries instantly tried to block their way

"Hello" He waved in what he hoped was a cheerful manner.

"Greetings mortals, what business do you have in Avalon?"

"Correction, comrade, that one isn't a mortal. He appears to be a vampire."

"He's not a vampire," the witch said primly, "I'm here to escort him to The Library. He's the apprentice of The Librarian's wife…and I want some of those fruit buns from the big bakery on the main street."

"He has no aura and I can't hear a pulse..."

"The librarian isn't allowed to marry his little blue-haired vampire. The Council of Elders decreed it."

Ianto was fairly unnerved as to the fact that elves could hear people's pulses. He supposed it came with having such large ears.

"Reapers. They're grim reapers." Kathros was obviously trying very had to keep her cool - these elves were quite thick headed for ones so supposedly clever, "details aside, please let us in. I am very hungry and he's going to be late for his tasks; would you like to explain to The Librarian why you held up his common-law wife's business?"

"No ma'am, sorry, but if the vamp- er, reaper, gets some papers for when he next wishes to enter, that would be most appreciated, as I wish to forewarn you that as of next Moon Day, we will be implementing a policy of checking papers in response to the Dragon Threat."

"Right. Wonderful. Dragon Threat…open the gates now please?"

"Fine, fine, just make sure you walk through the trough of detergent on the way in." The more sensible of the two elves went to open the gate, the more irritating of the two having gone to the guard-hut and started writing something down furiously in some book.

Kathros took Ianto's hand, she was giving off an annoyed vibe even if she appeared outwardly calm, Flox was visibly glaring at the two sentries as they passed them.

"Wait! You need a permit for the panther! He must be registered under the Magical Creatures Act!" Cried the irritating one from the guard hut.

Ianto saw Kathros take a deep breath and almost instantly calm down,

"Well, I simply don't have that sort of time right now," she said in a friendly way, "but I think I have a compromise in mind,"

"Oh, what would that be?" Said the irritating one in a slightly too-hopeful-for-his-own-good voice. Hopefully, just hopefully the human was going to go back to the village, although he _had_ just filled in the form for "admittance of a mortal to Avalon".

And it was rather a long form.

Instead, she pressed the lead for the big cat into his unresisting hand, "you can take care of my familiar whilst I'm inside the city. That way we can go about our business and we don't have to go through the trouble of filling in a form. That's nice, isn't it?" she smiled

"Er, yes, it is, yes." The elf looked at the panther with abject horror. It had been fine all the time he'd stayed in the guard-hut and there was a nice solid wall between him and the cat. It had seemed so much so smaller a minute ago, but now he was face to face with a very large, very sharp mound of fur, muscle and claw.

"Nice..."

"Wonderful! Be good for the nice Elfin man, Flox, I'll be back in oh…three or four hours" and thus, she linked arms with Ianto cheerfully and led him inside before there could be more protests from the two sentries, into the beautiful elf city.

TBC

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ Congratulations to those who made it this far. Really we didn't mean for them to keep talking but they just wouldn't shut up!_

_**Jack:**__ And I didn't have any lines in this one either! (sulky face)_

_**Kate:**__ You're in the next one, stop being so emo._

_**Jack:**__ the witch girl got more lines than me. _

_**Kate:**__ She's Welsh, Ianto's Welsh and they were in her forest, it's polite to make conversation…and I don't know if you noticed but you weren't in this chapter._

**Translations**

Welsh

_**"Peidiwch 'neud 'na! Rwy'n dod nawr"**__ - Don't do that! I'm coming now_


	10. Sleep, Forgiveness & the Scent of Death

A puff of cold air danced over Jack's nose as he lay curled up on his bunk, he muttered something unintelligible before he automatically turned to lie on his front, face buried in his pillow to get away from the cold.

Just under day had passed since the incident leading to Rik's death, he hadn't forgiven himself, had once more turned to his old trick of burying himself deeper into his work to the point that a few of his more caring co-workers had ganged up and all but ordered him to get some rest (this was mostly motivated by the fact that a tired overseer would make mistakes, which could result in more deaths, and none of them were quite ready to die just yet)

Jack was not asleep; not really, he was just lying there with his eyes shut in a sort of half-doze.

Sleep was for the innocent, not people with a hero-complex who got others killed needlessly.

In other words, people who were not Jack Harkness

The cold air blew across the back of his head and Jack shivered slightly.

Great, something else had broken, was now leaking and his room was growing cold.

A slight weight settled on his back. THAT was unexpected.

"If you're waiting for me to kiss you, you've got a long wait ahead of you, Sleeping Handsome"

Well, that explained the cold air. She'd been breathing on him, like a human would have but without a true body, there was nothing to warm her breath.

"I'm trying to _sleep_." he grumbled

He wasn't, but at the same time he'd rather be left in peace.

"Aww, come on, don't be like that, I came to see you especially," he felt her move to lie along his back, "I came to see how you're doing now. Also came to tell you that the good Doktor Rikard Steinner made it to Heaven, I thought you'd like to know."

"He was a doctor?" Jack rolled over, hopefully tipping Rio off the bed.

"Gah!" It was satisfying to hear the solid thud she made as she hit the floor,

"Mean," she pouted at him as she climbed back up and sat on the edge

"Mean? **I'm** not the one waking the recently bereaved from their slumber."

"I honestly can't argue with that" she leaned back on her elbows, "Rik was a doctor," she said finally, "a good one. Lost his faith in his skills though"

"Why did he end up working here?"

"From what I understand there was an epidemic on his home world. His wife was one of the first to die from it; sweet lady, named Maggie, was pregnant with their first. He blamed himself for not saving the both of them. Became disillusioned, gave up medicine and hitched a ride on this pile of scrap where no one knew him. A new start where he could 'atone' for the sins only he felt he'd committed"

Jack felt a knot form in his stomach. He didn't want to be reminded of what had happened to Owen, of the Resurrection Gauntlet and that tragedy. And Rik's story was hitting a little too close to home for his comfort.

"How... many humans do you think are living concurrently to those on Earth on different worlds?"

The reaper-girl bit her thumbnail and looked contemplatively up at the ceiling of his bunk, "more than can anyone except Him could count, I think…" she turned her attention back to him, "Are you ready to set foot on firm land again, yet?" she asked, he knew she really was concerned for him

"I'm not going back to Cardiff"

Rio moved again, this time she straddled his blanket-covered hips, likely to make sure he was actually paying attention "I didn't say 'do you want to go back to Cardiff?' I said 'are you ready to set foot on firm land again?'"

Jack tried to wriggle from under her - this was a compromising position to be in after all

"I don't want to stay on this ship any longer than I absolutely have to," he finally admitted, giving up on trying to get away, it was impossible if Rio wanted it to be.

The reaper put her hands on his shoulders, making him jump slightly from the chilled feeling of her skin. "Come live on Terra" she said seriously, "please."

"Which one's that?"

"The one I currently live on. Terra, Avalon and New Wales, Albion and Catland. You know," she leaned in as if she was going to kiss him but stopped with her lips inches away from his, "you want to explore all of it."

"That's the one with the cute catgirls, right?"

Rio rolled her eyes, "yes, the one with the cute catgirls AND your boyfriend," she didn't kiss him but rubbed their noses together in a friendly-playful way, "you're starting to sound like the Jack Harkness I know and like a lot"

Jack was torn between rushing to be with Ianto, and paradoxically slightly afraid to spend time with him.

Jack brought trouble wherever he went, and he still blamed himself for what had happened to Ianto, and for what had happened to a lot of people over the years.

Centuries, even.

"Jack, you've got to stop blaming yourself."

He hadn't said anything yet. Rio was getting uncanny.

"Come on, it's not doing you any good," she continued, "If I can forgive you for sleeping with my brother, I'm pretty certain you can forgive yourself for things that you had absolutely no control over"

"I didn't know he was your brother back then! I didn't know you were you!"

"Hey, hey, I'm not blaming… I'm willing to admit my brother was a handsome devil back in the days that we both had a pulse and that lovely mocha coloured skin," Rio's grin showed that she was only teasing him with the comment, "besides, you made him happy in a time he was feeling down, it's hard to hate someone who did that for my twin."

Jack was not good at taking compliments or honest praise right now.

"I'm glad I made someone happy," He paused "If I go to Terra, I want you to understand I will be going there to explore not settle down with you and the nerd, and you will have to understand that."

"I understand…" and she hugged him gently around the neck before something occurred to her, "…are you naked under this blanket?"

"You don't need to know the answer to that."

This made the reaper-girl scoot a few inches back, "mention this to no one and I won't bring up you and my brother ever again, deal?"

"Deal"

"Good" she stood up and stretched, "get yourself to a planet, find a rift and I can probably manipulate it to get you to Terra"

"Easier said than done. We've had an emergency beacon going since the meteor hit, and not a single ship's replied, and the ship's in no state to fly itself."

"Something will turn up, I have no doubt…" Rio turned her head to look out of his window at the expanse of stars outside, "pretty view from here"

"It's just stars. I've seen millions of views of stars, it gets boring after a while."

"It's never 'just stars' "

"As long as it doesn't have too many moons."

"You have answer for everything, don't you?"

"Of course I do, I'm Jack Harkness - I know everything or something... "

"You," Rio was on his lap again, instantly, as if she'd never moved, (reaper powers were overly creepy sometimes) "could just be good at BSing, I've never been sure which"

"Right now I know I need to sleep. I think I've been up 27 hours already...Ever been so exhausted you're too tired to sleep?"

"Yes," she nodded, silver-blue hair falling into her eyes in an adorable way, "I'll leave you to sleep now. I'll know when you're planet-side," and before he could protest, she pulled him into a kiss.

An actual 'on the lips, arms around the neck holding him in place' kiss

"Rio - I have a boyfriend!" he managed

He wasn't fighting her off though.

He really felt he should be objecting more...but kissing a reaper was somewhat addictive; she smelt of fresh turned earth, leaf mould, damp moss and rain, in short, she smelt of death, (something that enticed him since he'd discovered his inability to die), she was pleasingly soft and female shaped (he was famous in some parts of the universe for not being picky when it came to gender after all) and her lips were deathly cold but smooth and soft, and as they kissed they warmed up slightly, becoming hotter…

…Just like Ianto had not too long ago…

Jack summoned some resolve.

"Rio!" he yelped, pulling back a small way from the hold she had around his neck, "_You_ have a husband, and _**I **_have Ianto, stop this! It's not right!"

"I know," Rio mumbled against his mouth, "this is for a good cause…it's Just This Once"

He recognised that phrase!

That was the code reapers used for-!

He suddenly lacked the energy to think coherently, exhaustion clouding his mind and making his limbs heavy as lead. Thus he couldn't find it in him to fight when Rio released her hold and pushed him gently backwards until he was lying flat on his back, head on the well-worn pillow and she went as far as tucking him in (though she did THAT with a small laugh of amusement.)

He was too tired to protest that he was WAY too old to be treated like a toddler, much too tired…

Had to sleep…

"Bit of advice, sleepy-head," she told him almost playfully, "brush your teeth."

With that, Jack passed out into sleepy oblivion, left in a dreamless sleep that would rest him properly for a change. If he had dreamt, it would have been about searching his cabin for a non-existent toothbrush.

Rio shook her hair out slightly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she stood back up again.

Well, that was that.

As much as she'd disliked having to abuse one of her powers just to ensure that the man got a good night's sleep for the first time in almost nine human months, she had also effectively killed two birds with one stone.

Jack was going to come to Terra, which would make Ianto happy, which was something he deserved.

…And she now knew what her twin brother had been raving about all that time ago; call it sibling rivalry, if you must.

"I must really like you, Harkness" She told the sleeping man softly before she gently mussed Jack's hair with an affection born from over a hundred meetings caused by Jack's many deaths.

Jack's only reply was the soft sound of his breathing as he passed into Slow Wave Sleep

"Boa noite meu caro amigo" she whispered and kissed his forehead

Before she vanished back into nothingness though, she took something from her jeans pocket and placed it carefully on the desk, where Jack couldn't fail to see it when he woke up.

The envelope was bright, almost neon, green in colour, it contained a delicate-looking white and silver card (designed personally by Ellandanen), pretty but she did feel it was a bit excessive for a child's first birthday invitation.

"See you soon, Jack," she said, before she finally vanished off home.

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ I'm going to have to explain what Rio did there, aren't I?_

_OK, the only way I can describe it is: think about when you last had the 'flu or a really bad cold, we all know the kind, the one that stops you sleeping at night even though you're exhausted but you're feeling too ill and stuffed up._

_You feel like Death, in other words_

_Then, maybe 3 or 4 nights later you FINALLY get a good sleep, it's a miracle and you wake up feeling a lot better._

_THAT is how 'the kiss' works. Usually it's to the forehead but in Jack's case…well, I already explained._


	11. Old Friends and New Lessons

It was one of those days that could be called schizophrenic, the sky was blue and the weather was hot, yet it was drizzling from somewhere that no one could really discern.

As it was, Ellandanen was sat at a covered table outside of the coffee shop he liked to frequent, a mug of hot, bitter black coffee on the table and his son, who was sucking happily at a bottle (plastic because Rio had been firm on the issue of not allowing the boy around glass items), held firm and secure on his lap.

Riaden hadn't been grabbing at 'Danen's hair today, opting instead to be quiet and sleepy. Despite the fact that this usually vaguely annoyed 'Danen on account that it hurt, for some reason he hadn't quite fathomed, he missed it.

Right now he was wondering if it was due to the weather. In summer, it only rained at night, but it was now autumn, and it so it was begin to rain during the day too, and 'Danen was wondering if his son didn't like the damp.

Rio was off somewhere, neatly dividing her time between doing her job and training Ianto, whom, it seemed, was shaping up quite well, though they were avoiding flight until they could pin down the almost-eternally busy Azriel to ask if Ianto's wing-manifestation would hurt him, these tasks were why Ellandanen was caring for Riaden.

Not that he minded at all, Rio was always telling him that he should spend time with Riaden in his formative years because the boy would grow so fast he'd be an adult before they could blink

They might've continued in this quiet way but a shadow fell across the table and caused both father and son to look up

Azriel didn't want dramatic entrances. He didn't intend it; it seemed to be part of his nature, that whenever he arrived anywhere, it was spooky; even when he was walking in light drizzle and humming to himself some hymn of desperation he'd picked up the insectoid people of a distant planet singing while he'd been dealing with the aftermath of that planet being hit by a rather large asteroid.

It had kept him rather busy of late. He hadn't talked to 'Danen in a very long time, by human standards. Not that Azriel kept to human standards.

But he liked the tune. It had got stuck in his head. Key of B minor was rather dark, so he'd transposed it to A Minor.

"Afternoon," the elf librarian greeted the Angel of Death, whilst Riaden, upon deciding that the newcomer wasn't a threat to his position on his father's lap, went back to his bottle.

"Er, hello 'Danen. Your sister said you were here..."

"Indeed," he nodded in reply before, more charitably than he felt, pulled out a chair with his free hand, indicating that Azriel could sit down if he so wished

Azriel sat down, looking nervously at 'Danen. He had a face like a storm cloud again. "I'm really sorry about Rio's hours at the moment - once Ianto's trained he'll be relieving some of her case load, I promise..."

"Is this why you decided to track me down today?" Ellandanen wanted to know, carefully removing the now-empty bottle from his son's mouth, "to apologise?"

"Yes... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about sending Rio off to Italy - I severely underestimated Sin, and on retrospect think it I should have sent someone down to help. Rio is one of my most experienced employees, and I thought one evil spirit wasn't going to be such a problem - she's taken out demons before today. I'm sorry the assignment took so long, and I'm sorry she had to leave in such a hurry.

The librarian looked at him over the tops of his glasses, "You sent my wife into a dangerous situation where she got stabbed and had to spend hours waiting for her physical body to regenerate. Surely the departments of Heaven are able to research before sending field agents in?"

"There was absolutely no precedent for a being like Sin... What happened to the golem-android has never before occurred, and no such entity had previously been created. From all the information we had she was a malevolent spirit, but one with little physical presence."

All Azriel could do was watch as Ellandanen put his son over his shoulder to rub the child's back.

"You might better understand my concerns if you had someone yourself," he said this coldly but the words held no malice, "Rio is…she's my angel. I cannot tolerate people who put her in danger, even if she cannot die, the thought of her being hurt or injured is…unacceptable"

"Rio's job is inherently dangerous -she knew that when she joined the ranks- but I try my best to avoid sending her, or any of my employees, into unnecessary danger. I am sorry and I made an error of judgement. If it is any consolation, part of the reasons I have tried my best to interrupt Ianto's training with as few missions as possible is that I am trying to keep Rio and you as close together, in terms of location, as possible," Azriel rubbed his forehead slowly, "I am, to be honest, surprised that I ended up with Sin on my case books - I would have thought it more suitable to Uriel's department - but it seems those Above categorised Sin as the deceased."

"I see…" Ellandanen couldn't stop a look of affection towards his son, as the boy settled down to sleep against his shoulder, "I do understand. Truly. But even so…"

"When things calm down - there's a world ending over in Sector 37 - and I can spread myself out a little more, would you and Rio like some time out together? I hear Earth have a particularly interesting cricket tournament going on, and some rather popular music festivals..."

"She does like the hot weather, she says it's something to do with her Latino blood, whatever that is," very gently, Ellandanen rubbed his sleeping son's back. He'd calmed slightly, Azriel was a very old friend of his after all and intellectually he knew the angel wouldn't deliberately put Rio in harm's way

"Tell me about this new recruit. Ianto. How is he faring?" he said finally

"He's an intelligent young lad, he picks things up very quickly, from all reports so far. Rio left a message that she wanted to discuss his flight training, but I haven't found her yet. He seems to have a better knack than many for walking through things, by Rio's report."

Ellandanen nodded slowly. "And yourself? How have you been keeping?"

"The same as always. A little worried about this supposed "Second" being - a fallen archangel - and fed up with rather silly missives from Michael's department, but other than that, fairly good."

"Good to hear," the librarian took a drink of his coffee, "a fallen archangel? I'll assume that's simply a rumour?"

"No, no, there were some, a long, long time ago - not a recent fall, but from The Fall - " Azriel managed to pronounce the capital letters. "There _are_ rumours, but not about new fallen archangels...Lucifer was an archangel - the Archangel of Light, of all things! Before The Fall, Michael was not the Archangel General, he was the Archangel of Fire, and I wasn't even an archangel, and I'm still technically not."

"You may as well be, you have the respect,"

"From those below, maybe."

"Any respect is better than none at all"

"True, true. And I have an excellent team..." Azriel seemed to drift off slightly. "Anyway, how is Riaden?"

"Asleep," he gestured to the child, who was by now, sucking on his thumb as he dreamed, "but he's well. Sleeping through the night mostly, on some sort of mushy food Rio makes up for him and stores in jars, I've no idea what's in half of them but she assures me she was fed off them when she was his age."

It was right to keep Azriel up to speed with the child's growth and achievements so far; he was Riaden's godfather after all

"Hmm, humans tend to do that. It's some sort of pureed vegetable mix, I think."

"It smells strange to me, but he seems to enjoy them so I've no complaints…do you want to hold him?" the last time Azriel had held Riaden, the boy had been an infant of a few days old; there'd been little time since for the Angel to visit, always so busy

"Sure" The angel of death managed a very happy sort of smile that mythology would think very out of character at any event other than at least a major earthquake, but there again, mythology seemed to have got a reversed version of Azriel...

The baby only woke briefly, blue eyes opening slightly, just long enough to assess what was going on, before they closed and he fell back into the kind of blissful sleep only children below the age of five enjoy.

"He's going to have your nose. I can tell..."

"Has his mother's smile…when he's awake anyway"

Mythology experts would have had coronaries had they been around to witness the angel of death and an elf sitting and cooing over an infant

"Is that new hair? I would swear it is bluer than when we last met..."

"It's coming in a sort of cross between my colour and Rio's," Ellandanen nodded

"I hope the other children won't think it strange when he is older, but there again, your world is changing fast."

"…I'm starting to believe it might be time for change," the librarian admitted after a few moments of silence

The cryptozoologists and scholars of myths would _really_ be dead now, if an Elvin scholar and the angel of death being all fatherly hadn't taken them out already.

An elf admitting to the need for change

That would probably give the other elves a coronary if they over heard, too.

Avalon had always been known for its tranquillity, not its tolerance; its immortal inhabitants valued the past, but few thought to look to the future. Ellandanen himself had already caused a scandal by 'shacking up with a blue-haired former-human', something never expected of him

Most of the other elves knew little of reapers. Elves are strange creatures, in that their souls are part of the land, a factor that made exile very difficult for them in the Cataclysm, and the arrival of those through the Fairy Gates an even greater shock. Being tied to the land thus, they are not reaped, rather their souls being reabsorbed on their deaths. This lack of knowledge about reapers had caused many unnecessary rumours, the most persistent being that Rio was some kind of light-tolerant vampire.

That she'd eventually become pregnant with Ellandanen's baby has sparked…if not widespread outrage then definitely a feeling of mild annoyance amongst a select few; breeding meant everything to elves; that their blood was kept 'pure' was high on a scale of importance to them; resulting in most that dared find romance with a species outside the city fleeing the place

The shining city had a tarnished heart.

'Danen was old enough to remember what Avalon had been like before resentment had crept in between the exiles of various lands, before the elves had begun to think of themselves as guardians of perfection in the face of a world changing ever-more rapidly.

"You're coming to his birthday, correct?" the librarian asked after more contemplation. He may not like it, but at least he was willing to admit that things had to change. That included the way that elves viewed 'outsiders'.

"Oh, most certainly! I've even bought him a present!"

"Not necessary but a nice gesture, old friend,"

The two really had known each other for a very long time

A long enough time that it probably needed measuring on the same sorts of scales as erosion and rock formation.

"What was Ianto's reason for joining the ranks? Rio's reluctant to tell me but she mentions the Harkness gentleman around him now and then but…forgive my curiosity on the subject"

"He doesn't want to go to Heaven without Harkness, but Harkness can't die."

"I see…that immortal man that she's always back and forth with," Ellandanen nodded, NOW he understood.

"Do you believe he made the best choice?"

"I... am not in a position to judge."

"As an observer, naturally"

"I have only seen one of the possibilities, as you know."

"But if I had to press you for your opinion, giving up Heaven for love…" Ellandanen was not one to let questions go by unanswered

"I cannot tell whether it is the better choice, I have no knowledge of Heaven - remember, I am still an outcast - but in theory he has surrendered life in Paradise for remaining in the sordid mortal realm as a half-being, and is a therefore a paragon of self-sacrifice and obstinacy."

"Saint Ianto, in effect?" that made Ellandanen chuckle gently

"Oh, saints are an irritatingly self-righteous bunch, I wouldn't insult him like that…"

"I'd trust Rio's judgement on the pair of them, Azriel. Not to insult, but they've both had the experience of being completely human, I'm given to understand that humans will sacrifice almost anything to keep those they love from being in pain"

"It is an admirable trait in mortals. I only wish some of the immortals were as altruistic. Is Antoinette still causing trouble?"

"When Ianto first arrived, she didn't hesitate before running to tell me that my 'blue-haired backstabber' was enjoying coffee with another man" the grave expression on the elf's face spoke volumes

"She really isn't going to let go, is she? I have met 15-year-old humans with more maturity than her, and she's what? About 500 already?"

"Older, I believe, pushing at least 600 by now," Ellandanen gently took his son back from Azriel and placed the sleeping boy in his carry basket, "when Rio was expecting, the first few months she never missed an opportunity to call attention to her being 'fat'…I will never forget the expression of utter shock the day Rio turned and said 'I am _not_ fat, I am _pregnant_ with 'Danen's baby' " the memory brought a half-embarrassed, half-pleased flush to the elf's face

"Oh my... Does she have no decorum? For an elf she has a profound lack of politeness."

"I wonder at times…is he accompanying her with clients as yet?"

"Not yet, not until he can fly. At the moment he's apparently working on trying to hear surface thoughts".

"Teaching him to hear is one thing, control is another, I trust you will help her with that particular lesson?"

"Oh yes, that's half the reason I'm out here. He needs to be able to turn that one off. It is hard, once one has been able to hear, to shut it out, and I've seen new reapers go half-demented from hearing the constant chatter of other's thoughts. It takes a lot of control, that skill and a character that will not use it for ill. Ianto is one of the few I can immediately trust not to start using it for petty reasons."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, the rain refusing to let up, mingling with the sun to create quite a spectacular rainbow, neither of them spoke of the reapers that had gone mad or used it for petty reasons and there HAD been a few of those

Azriel was recruiting from those who would otherwise face purgatory, those who thus always have flaws.

Mostly they were normal flaws, mild over-fondness for certain borderline-legal chemicals or certain foods…though the power to read minds had the ability to be a corrupting force, despite it being a necessity of the job

In Rio's case, when concerning a certain Captain Harkness, it had become a tool to understand the complex 'man who could not die'

* * *

"Remember how nearly everything else comes down to 'focus and pay attention' in this job?" Rio asked Ianto.

They were standing in The Grey Place, facing each other, Ianto had been trying to read her mind for the last…say, hour and a half…without success and was now beginning to get frustrated with his lack of success

"I am focusing and I couldn't pay more attention even if I wanted to..."

"But you've got to relax on top of that, it's supposed to come as second nature"

Relax? How was he supposed to concentrate and relax at once?

This was getting really frustrating. It felt like he wasn't making any progress at all.

Rio took a pair of black wire-rimmed glasses from her robe pocket and put them on, she looked at him over the top of them.

"What did you do to relax? When you were alive?" she asked seriously, "I mean aside from 'Naked Hide and Seek'', because I'm not stripping down for anyone not Ellandanen"

"I... wasn't expecting you to…"

Rio giggled lightly, "You blush so easily," she clasped her hands in front of her, "but it was the memory that surfaced when I told you to relax…you and Jack REALLY got inventive, huh?"

"A bit, yes..."

"I knew you weren't as stuck up as you act," she smiled, "but you should try to use that as an example…challenging but something fun an relaxing, understand?"

"I...see"

"If you get a handle on this, I'll show you how to use the Grey Place in a fun way"

Ianto gulped. This sounded like it was going in entirely the wrong direction.

"Trust me," she said, "now, calm down and listen to what I'm thinking. Hear it with your mind, not your ears. It's really not as hard as you're thinking it is"

…says the one who's been a reaper for decades, he thought somewhat sullenly

"…I'll have you know we'd have been the same age if I had a pulse, thank you very much"

"I think I should take up yoga"

"Yoga?"

"Challenging but relaxing."

"Never thought of it that way, now read my mind."

Ianto stopped procrastinating and actually tried. Well, the first thing he tried was to try and stop getting frustrated, to calm down.

"Deeeeeep breath of mist," she told him, "that's what it's there for"

Ianto inhaled deeply. Right that instant, the mist smelled ever so slightly of lavender. It was actually very relaxing.

Rio stood relaxed; her mind was unshielded so he'd be able to read it quite easily when he put his mind to it. It shouldn't be hard as she was purposely thinking of one word

It was rather odd for Ianto, the idea of hearing with his mind rather than his ears. He had established seeing with mind quite by accident when he was in the glade, hopefully this would work a little like that.

_'Cupcake' _he heard, faintly, in his mind, though his ears would swear it hadn't been spoken, _'Cupcake. Cupcake. Cupcake. Cup-'_

"Cupcake?"

"You got it!"

"But you said that?"

"I was thinking it"

"It sounded very much like you said it, too." Ianto looked crestfallen. Maybe she'd thought about it so hard she'd ended up speaking it outloud

"I never spoke a word, I was THINKING about the word 'cupcake', but I didn't say it out loud. Have a little faith in yourself, Mr Jones"

"I really did it?"

"I wouldn't be telling you that you had otherwise" Rio was shorter than he was so literally looked up at him, "I don't give praise where it's not earned. You'd become a bad and incompetent reaper if I let you get away without completing vital parts of training"

"Yes" It was about all he could think of saying. "Can I have a coffee now?"

"Yeah, we can have coffee, my fellow addict," Rio broke into another smile, "I'll explain about the other uses for this place over a mug"

She took his arm gently, "you transport us, you need the practice"

Ianto shut his eyes, and thought very clearly about the coffee house on the main boulevard that they had first come to. He made very sure to concentrate the idea of he and Rio both being there.

This time they ended up neatly on the cobbles just outside

"You're getting really good at this, Ianto"

"I didn't arrive somewhere in mid-air!"

"I know; it's awesome. Let's get some caffeine!" she pulled on his arm like a child wanting sweets

"Caffeine, yes, yes..."

The rain didn't touch the pair of reapers, mostly because they hadn't noticed that it **was** raining, all they cared about right now was coffee…though they had to pause when someone called them.

"Boss man…'Danen!" Rio greeted, need for caffeine temporarily forgotten

Azriel smiled. "Ah, just the people I am looking for."

"Should we be worried?" the female-reaper asked, stepping over to stand next to her husband, where she began to nonchalantly play with one of the two braids in his hair.

Ianto stood nervously watching at the edge of the table…this was his boss…it felt uncomfortably like when he'd first joined Torchwood and he couldn't shake the feeling that he had something on his nose or that his suit was untidy.

"Your suit's fine, stop trying to flatten it or you'll work in creases."

Ianto let out a 'meep' noise,

"Sorry, Sir" he apologised automatically; Azriel had been as counterproductive as ever in his efforts to not intimidate people.

"What do you need us for, Boss Man," Rio put in gently, an act of mercy which broke the uncomfortable tension building up, "Why were we the subject of conversation?" she currently had Ellandanen's braid wrapped loosely around her wrist, like a bracelet

"Because I've come to help Ianto with his telepathy," he turned to look at the Welshman as he added, "and talk to you about wings."

"…you're going to help me with telepathy, sir?" hadn't he just had a lesson in this? Then again if the boss was willing to teach him (and when had he started thinking of Azriel as his 'Boss'?) "And my wings?"

"I doubt Rio will have shown you hers, because hers are unfortunately very painful to manifest, but as a reaper, you have wings, functional wings for the purpose of flight. The pain of manifestation is directly proportionate to the level of the sins committed in life. I suppose Heaven decreed it as a reminder that Reapers are not proper angels." A distinct note of bitterness hung in the last remark.

"She did mention something along those lines…will mine hurt on manifestation?"

"Yes. You have lead an exemplary life, but not one completely blameless. You have committed numerous minor sins that are really... not much, but will unfortunately mean that your wings will hurt. Hopefully, though, they will not hurt /very much/ as you have also done many acts of goodness and virtue."

"So basically," Rio said slowly, "his will sting a bit while mine feel like someone's ripped my shoulder blades out through my back, right?"

Ianto looked slightly taken aback. It really hurt her that much?

For a suicide?

It seemed a bit on the brutal side to him, he could understand that as a punishment for something on the scale of patricide or the like…

"I did kill someone," the reaper-girl said, apparently he still had to learn about shielding his thoughts, "I killed myself. You know that now. It's murder to Him"

"I don't know how much his will hurt, I am not privy to every fact of his life. Only He is omniscient."

"Does this mean another trip back to The Grey Place?" the Welshman asked. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of being in pain in public, let alone manifesting wings.

"Yes, it does. One of the useful properties of the mist is that you can draw strength from it, which may be useful if it hurts more than anticipated."

"Hugs help too," Rio said, sharing a glance with Ellandanen, "but that might just be me"

"…can I have some coffee first?" Ianto asked finally, after a few moments of thinking about it

"Certainly! I haven't got as far as ordering one myself yet. Did you know only 7% of habitable planets have coffee?"

"Yes" answered 'Danen "and this is the only one where tea and coffee come from the same plant"

"Only 7%?" that prompted him to pull out a spare seat and sit down, "really only 7%? And the same plant? That's incredible!"

Rio, for preference (and the blush that appeared on the elfin-man's face when she did) sat sideways on Ellandanen's lap, looking comfortable and as if she intended to stay there

"Yes," Continued the elf, discreeting wrapping an arm around her waist, "Coffee here is not made from the same plant as coffee on your world. Here it is made from plant that fills the same evolutionary niche as _coffea arabica_ and _coffea canephora robusta_ but is slightly different, although it is still the seeds - "beans" as you insist on calling them, that are used in the manufacture of our "coffee" beverage, but it also happens to have leaves that are stewed in a manner to tea-leaves to produce an infusion similar to tea, although not as nice. I really lament the fact that true tea is only available on your world."

"He's so cute when he's being all clever," Rio smiled and nuzzled him gently

Ianto's head swam slightly from all the new information. "Hasn't anyone tried to grow uh…True Tea here?" he asked, "I'm sure it can't be that hard, right?"

"Unfortunately Avalon does not have the right climate, the catfolk think it's disgusting stuff, and the soil is of the wrong mineral and nutritional balance in the lands of the Kitsune, although they have an ideal climate and altitude"

"…I think I remember catfolk" Ianto said, "didn't we…see one in Cardiff once?"

"My assistant... went through a fairy gate, yes..."

"Yes! I remember now!" Ianto blinked, it felt as if a fogged memory had been uncovered, "…dragons!"

"Where?" the other three at the table looked around, one fearfully and the other two curiously

The elf tensed and scoured the sky with his eyes in search for a dark shape across the sky. He had nothing against dragons personally, and was good friends with a few, but events of the past still made him want to seek flame-proof shelter at the mention."

"Nothing…" Ianto shook his head again, "sorry…um…just remembering that it had something to do with dragons"

The elf relaxed a little. "Sorry, I thought you meant there were dragons here right now... Yes, my assistant went searching for a particularly unsavoury dragon at a very... troubled point in her life. We are heartily sorry for any inconvenience the matter may have caused."

"She didn't really leap into a fairy gate, did she?" Asked Azriel, still incredulous a year of Avalon time after 'Danen told him the first time, and a lot longer in Reaper time.

"For the twenty-third time of repeating myself, Azriel, she did."

"And with a very important historical document! And not even in a protective covering!"

"Well, you did say she returned with an even more important document..."

Ianto looked between the…well, he'd mentally dubbed them 'the two intellectuals' in amazement.

"Ianto, this is a very important word of advice - never, ever run through a portal unless you or someone you trust with your life made it, and you know exactly where it leads."

"Alright," Ianto nodded, not really seeing why it should be relevant since he could transport himself to different places now, but he made a mental note anyway

"And the reason is that there are some places one can teleport to, but not leave... They have powerful magics and energy that even I cannot meddle with, and there **are** fates worse than death, Ianto."

"…you read my mind again" he guessed dryly

"Yes, I did, on account that the lesson about portals is a very important one I want heeded. Being newly deceased is not the same as being newly invulnerable."

"I understand, sir…Boss,"

Azriel smiled. He tried to make it a nice smile, he really did but omehow, whenever he smiled, there was something of the grin of a skull about it.

"Boss man, you're going to scare people"

Azriel sighed.

"I've got flesh, my wings are not manifest, and I'm not wearing my robes..."

"I'm sure she's only teasing you, Boss" Ianto told him sincerely, "I understand your intention"

"Good good..."

"I'm going to order coffee," Rio promptly hopped off Ellandanen's lap, checked that their son was still asleep (running a finger gently down the angelical little face) before she headed around to the side of the table Azriel was situated on.

"Don't worry Boss Man," she told him, giving him a friendly peck on the cheek, "we like you"

"Danen, is it really that unnerving when I smile?"

"No, no, you just try too hard to smile nicely," the elf reassured

Azriel's two employees nodded in unison.

Coffee was fetched, paid for and drunk, the atmosphere much lighter than it had been a few minutes earlier, before Azriel announced that he felt it was time for Ianto to learn how to manifest wings.

The other uses of The Grey Place would have to wait, it seemed.

TBC

* * *

_**Jack: **One chapter and then you forget about me?_

_**Carolin:** If we give you more cuddle time with Ianto, will you stop complaining about not being in chapters?_

_**Jack:** Yes! You bet!_

_**Kate: **(shoves Ianto over) have fun. Cuddle like ferrets in heat or whatever is it you do. Just turn up for the next one._


	12. Wings 101

_**Kate's Note:**__ two announcements before we go into this chapter_

_Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who left us such encouraging reviews. We really appreciate them. Honestly, your words are the fuel that keep us writing. _

_Give yourselves a big hand, you rock!_

_Secondly: I'm just going to announce again - Carolin and I request some art for this story please! We'd really like to be able to link to some illustrations._

_Or if you can't draw, we would accept a fanfic (…a fanfic of a fan fic…that's a headache to think about…) _

_**Jack:**__ Ever thought that maybe you girls are sounding a little bit desperate?_

_**Kate:**__ Ever thought I could write you back onto the pile of scrap in the middle of space? Far, FAR away from Ianto and the nearest doughnut shop? We gave you Ianto to cuddle, so go cuddle! I'll call you when you're in the story again._

* * *

The unending soft greyness surrounded them once more. Of the three, only Azriel seemed to truly belong in this setting.

Dark and misty was REALLY his thing

He stood facing his two employees, Ianto looked nervous, Rio looked as if she knew what was coming and was dreading it.

"Right, as I have previously explained, you have wings. They are as physical as your manifest corp- er, body, and exist in the same manner, and as thus you cannot really change them. They are a physical manifestation of your true self, the nature of which became unfixed when you died. Now, the first time you manifest your wings, the nature of all future manifestations will be fixed.

"OK…" Ianto swallowed, he didn't like the idea of being in extreme pain every time his wings manifested, "…what happens to my clothes when it happens? Do they stay ripped or…?"

"They allow for the wings," Rio said, voice full of resignation, "can't have reapers looking scruffy in anyway"

"Hey! I had to ask Raphael really nicely to get him to help with such a wide-ranging and automated spell! He made me join his departmental cricket team for that... And they still lost to Michael's lot. They can't seem to get the idea that the aim of cricket is not to turn the ball into the most imaginative and decorative display possible."

"I'm not complaining, just an observation, Boss Man"

"…You really like cricket, Sir?" It was Ianto's turn to break the tension, though he got the feeling that this was something that came around between the two of them now and then.

'Thank you' Rio mouthed at him discreetly; he smiled slightly as the angel of death spoke about what had to be his obsession.

"Oh yes! I found out about when one poor chap I had to reap had a heart attack in the middle of a game... After I had completed the assignment, I stayed around to watch..."

At least Azriel was doing something social now that he had cricket to play. He'd even managed to set up the Interdepartmental Cup, which had at least got most of the departments being a little more communicative, except for Michael's department, who took everything so competitively. But he soon realised he'd been pulled away from his original point and stopped mid-sentence.

Both reapers giggled at him slightly, sounding a lot like a pair of school children laughing at a teacher's mistake

"Ahem, now where were we... yes, wings. Thanks to Raphael's help, any clothes will respond to wing manifestation, but you do have to make sure you have activated Raphael's handiwork on the garments, otherwise they will simply rip, and before that hinder manifestation and thus make the process more painful."

"How do I activate it?"

"Incant the spell, of course. Magic is magic - As angels, most of us perform miracles rather than magic, but they can only be performed by angels, this is why I had to get Raphael's help - this was a spell, so I needed a mage, and 'Danen didn't know how to do it, and Raphael had been pestering me about trying to explain cricket to his 'team'..."

Rio coughed pointedly, stopping Azriel before he could go into another speech about the sport.

"Please tell him the spell, Boss Man"

"Oh, yes, sorry... It's another Reaper Code... "Tearing Isn't Pretty" - I objected to "pretty", but Raphael had already fixed it..."

Ianto had been learning the code, apparently reapers found it better to have code phrases to use certain powers rather than remember a long complicated incantation.

This one he added to his mental list along with 'Just This Once', which Rio had told him about after she'd apparently been to check on Jack for him.

Azriel looked briefly at an imaginary point in the grey somewhere and suddenly he wasn't a lawyer-like man with an aquiline face, he was The Angel Azriel, and somehow looked a lot stronger without any change in mass, but his hair was now flowing behind him without any real wind, and the human face, once furrowed by the appearance of time, had changed to something that looked inhuman, almost inorganic but with little change in shape, just in texture and hue, as he appeared to be made of light crystallised to moonstone now, but most of all now he had wings.

Azriel's wings were the black wings of the Fallen, two broad curves of midnight feathers, fanning out slightly as if to stretch after confinement.

"Wings. Functional wings. I begun life as an angel, and despite falling to the Mortal real, am still an angel, thus my wings pain me not, hence why I am making this demonstration rather than making Rio go through with it."

"Thanks for the concern, Boss Man," Rio spoke up, "I've no objections to showing him though…I only object to people throwing me pitying looks afterwards." she tilted her head slightly, "besides, if his wings will hurt, he does need an example, correct? I'm willing to do it"

"It wasn't a pitying look - it was a compassionate look!"

"Not you, Boss," she told him gently, trying to soothe hurt feelings before they became too hurt

"Ok" Azriel smiled. In this form, it wasn't so creepy, just a bit glowy.

Ianto watched as she stepped between them before anyone could blink or think about stopping her.

"Tearing isn't Pretty" she announced to the Grey Place…he didn't see what exactly happened next, all he saw was Rio biting into her own wrist as she tried to muffle a scream of pain, the pain so great that she actually fell to her knees, free hand gripping tightly at the misty ground

"Rio I said - " But it was too late, she had decided to go through with it. Azriel looked on anxiously. He placed a hand on her shoulder and sent her some of his own energy to try and help deal with it.

What Ianto would remember, always in his nightmares, was the terribly _**organic**_ sound as the flesh of her back apparently ripped open and her wings, a raven's blue-black in colour, dripping and glistening with her own blood protruded from her back, opening and fanning out in much the same way as Azriel's (if one was being darkly poetic, it might put you in mind of a large, if horrifically blood-soaked butterfly emerging)

Azriel flinched at the sound. He wished he could draw away her pain like he could with other beings, but this was like a curse, and one he was powerless to alleviate. The best he could do was give Rio some healing energy to help deal with it.

She stayed down on her knees a little while longer, gasping for breaths that really she didn't need.

"Excuse the language but…always hurts like a bitch!"

"…I…don't think I want to manifest if it's going to be that bad…"

"Big…big…" Rio gasped, "BIG sin…big pun…punishment…you'll…be OK…I think, " it took a few more moments before she could rise to her feet, "it's not so bad once they're out"

"I wonder what colour yours will be."

Ianto would have paled if it were possible, "Do I just…imagine myself with wings?" he asked

"This is harder."

"What do I do?" even if it hurt, he had to master this…no-one said he'd have to manifest them all the time after all, and it WAS part of human nature to wonder what it was like to fly…

"Visualisation is a part of it, but not in the initial stages - after all, as you have never manifested them, nobody knows what they look like yet - this is hard to describe, but you have... sort of push them through your back through force of will - this is not alteration of reality, but manifestation of physicality, which is a slightly different process."

"I'll even hold your hand," Rio offered, "It's a bit scary…"

He couldn't help but feel she was making the understatement of the decade, given what he'd just witnessed.

"So, essentially they exist under my skin already, I'm just letting them out" he said slowly

"Yes, essentially. Just... don't ask how they fit there"

"Alright," Ianto took a deep breath and concentrated, focusing on 'pushing out' his wings.

"Um, T-Tearing isn't Pretty!" he said uncertainly but with more force than he intended

It felt strange and more than a little scary as he felt the skin of his back starting to move, as if the nerves were twitching but on a bigger scale.

He could FEEL something moving under there and it frightened him.

He was vaguely aware of Rio gripping his hand but the tingling-sting in his back distracted him.

…there was pain, something like the feeling he had at the times he'd burnt himself on a hot coffee pot, except it was along his back , all over his back

And suddenly there was a feeling of weightlessness and…something moved behind him,

"OK…" he heard Rio say, "can I have permission to be horribly envious without it counting against my penance, Boss Man?"

"Permission granted - those ARE rather pre - elegant." He'd nearly said 'pretty'. Raphael was a highly corrupting influence for an ArchAngel.

Ianto risked a look behind him…and double took.

Unlike Azriel and Rio, his wings weren't black. They weren't even close to black…they were brown and white, like a Red Kite's.

"I don't think I've ever seen wings quite like that," Azriel commented

"I am SO jealous," Rio told him, without any malice, her own wings fluttered slightly in what could only be called a playful way.

"This isn't normal?" he asked surprised and feeling slightly self conscious, especially when one wing curved forward in an attempt to hide himself…something he hadn't thought about doing

"No" Answered Azriel "I've never seen a reaper with bird wings, especially such beautiful ones..."

"Oh…umm…can I-…can I change their colour?"

"No, that's pretty much set, we've been over this already"

"A reaper cannot change their physical bodies. Even an angel cannot, which is why there is a terrible creature in Hell with one real and one mechanical wing... If you see such a being, leave as quickly and silently as possible to the farthest away corner of the universe you can possibly imagine."

"All…all right," Ianto nodded, it was actually becoming easier to accept the wings, possibly because they felt…natural

A part of him

"That is because they are - you are no longer human, Ianto, you are a Reaper, a spirit creature in between worlds."

"And you read my mind again…"

"You think really loudly," Rio told him, putting a hand on his shoulder

"You do - that is something you need to work on."

"Sorry," he blushed slightly, "…can I fly naturally or do I need lessons for that too?"

"It takes practice, and some instruction, but it is more akin to a person who has recovered from injury learning to walk again than learning to walk through walls. The important thing to note is that it is a motion to propel one through the air, and is more cyclical than vertical in a plane - imagine doing butterfly stroke while swimming, that is the closest human action I can imagine"

Azriel leant forward and stepped into take-off "Unfortunately, unlike those new-fangled "helicopter" contraptions, we do not have vertical take-off"

"You need a good jump or run at it," Rio translated easily

"Ah, ok, that makes more sense."

"Or I can just push you off the top of a church tower and you can take your chances with being a fast learner," she told him, though he wasn't sure if she was serious in that threat or not

"Rio, that's not nice"

"Call it Backup Plan C?"

"We are not going to push Ianto off any buildings."

"Fine," she mock-pouted and Ianto shot Azriel a grateful look. He did NOT want to be pushed off any buildings! Not even if it enabled him to fly

"Anyway, Plan C is Plan Cricket"

"I hate cricket," Ianto heard Rio mumble, and covered his mouth with a wing to hide the amused smile that crossed his face.

This…really was starting to seem to be not so bad.

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ Carolin and I did discuss Ianto's wings at length, we decided he had to have fairly rank-neutral wings because he's not being punished like Rio, he's not Fallen like Azriel so we couldn't give him black wings. But he's not an angel either, so pure fluffy white wings were out too._

_So eventually, we came up with the idea of him having wings like a Red Kite, those are gorgeous and very elegant birds (you can see why we thought they'd suit Ianto) and it's fairly fitting because Wales has been praised for having lots of Birds of Prey around, I think we have the most breeding grounds in Britain or something, but don't quote me on that, I may be wrong or my information might be out of date._

_As for how much his hurt…retconning people and maybe a few deaths which weren't really his fault (I mostly blame the killings on Gwen, myself. I dislike her) don't count as far up the scale as a suicide or mass murder…we just like Ianto, don't want him to hurt too much or he'll never spread his wings (figuratively and literally) and develop into the top-notch reaper we know he can be._

_**Jack:**__ Either way, I'm not complaining_

_**Kate:**__ Makes a change for on-…JACK! Do you two have to do that THERE?_

_**Ianto:**__ I tried to talk him out of it, really Miss._

_**Kate:**__ Doesn't look like you tried very hard and…wait…I count 3 of you in there…MATTHEW! Get out of there!_

_**Matthew:**__ (muffled) I'm just…I needed some human contact! Quite! Hugs are really smashing!_

_**Kate:**__ You see what I have to put up with? Muses and OC's just running wild all over the place, I need to keep them on shorter leads I think._


	13. We're Far Too Good at Being Bad

_**Kate's Note:**__ Well, here we are again. Another chapter for your viewing pleasure_

_**Jack:**__ And this is, I gotta say, one of the best ones they've written so far._

_**Kate:**__ You're only saying that because you're in this one_

_**Jack:**__ Of course! Why else would it be awesome? And I need to be in more, that's what the people are coming for (grins)_

_**Kate: **__And there I thought they were coming for the good grammar , the interesting plot and -_

_**Jack:**__ (interrupts) Me and my 51__st__ Century charm. And why don't I get naked in any more chapters?_

_**Kate:**__ Because this is not a smut story and not everything has to end with you getting your kit off._

_**Jack:**__ But it's more interesting when I do!_

_**Kate:**__ Consider your lack of nudity a punishment for despoiling Matthew_

_**Jack:**__ I didn't hear him complaining. And did you know he makes the cutest face when he-_

_**Kate:**__ (interrupting) y'know what? Don't want to know. Let's just get on with this chapter._

* * *

To say that it had been hard to leave the ship was, Jack felt, the understatement of his very long life.

Mentally he'd left as soon as Rik had died…

It was physically leaving had been the difficult part, those in charge had realised how valuable he was when it came to his job and weren't all that keen on his leaving after the ship had been rescued and pulled to harbour on a nearby world, even going as far as to try and ban him from shore leave on said world, it was as if they knew he'd leave as soon as his feet touched solid ground.

The planet itself was nondescript. A world that was purely industrial, full of factories and hardware shops with the occasional store for fresh food (though how they managed to get it…Jack assumed they relied on ships like the one he'd been on).

It was what Earth looked like in an environmentalist's worst nightmare. The rivers ran purple and frothed, the skies were orange and black with the smoke of industry and no scrap of vegetation had remained. Unsurprisingly, it was a planet owned by the same species as Jack's ship.

Jack had been left sole captain, after his partner had finally been found several hours after the accident, having finally drunk himself to into a stupor after ingesting a near lethal quantity of hypervodkas stolen from the ship's hold. Curiously, the second captain had not been fired by their bosses for being drunk in charge of a cargo ship - that had apparently been an ongoing problem but for the theft of the hypervodkas.

"Kind of reminds me of home," a too-familiar voice to his left said conversationally, through a mouthful of something, "you know, when the traffic's high and the sun's baking."

"Oh hello. So you do apparently want to talk to me after all." Jack looked at the fruit she was eating. "You do realise that the apples around here have spent several months in suspended animation on my ship..."

"This?" Rio looked at the half eaten apple in her left hand, currently she was sat on a crate beside a wall, not too far away from the ship, which was about as far as Jack was really allowed to go; "That's coincidence. I happened to be eating this one at home, fresh off a tree, when I heard you were on solid land" she told him with a small, enigmatic smile, "and of course I want to talk to you…I'm here to say I'm not going to apologise for kissing you"

"Did I ask for an apology?"

"No…you enjoyed yourself huh? That's cool,"

"Your brother was better, but it wasn't bad."

He looked around; a figure crossed the street and vanished again into the hubbub of the trading post - a figure that had kept reappearing in his line of sight for the past three hours.

Rio's only response to the comment about her brother was to snort slightly in apparent amusement

"You do realise my bosses have decided I'm a little too valuable, and know a little too much and have come to the conclusion I'm not allowed to leave the ship..." he said finally,

…Not that he had actually obeyed any of that.

The figure that had been shadowing was edging nearer.

Jack mouthed, 'play along' to Rio before he said in his more usual 'easy charm' way; loud enough for anyone watching them to hear: "So would 70 credits be enough for the company of a classy lady like you for the evening?"

Rio blinked, looked around slightly and realised that she was visible here as a few people were looking directly at her…how very interesting. She'd have to explore that in more detail…

Later…

'That will be fine, love," she replied, really playing up her Londoner accent and thanking the Big Boss that she was wearing her Little Black Goth Dress today, offering Jack take her hand, a clear 'your proposition has been accepted' signal.

Jack took Rio's hand, helping her up, the half eaten apple lying forgotten, and he handed her a strip of paper with holographic medallions printed on it - the 'credits' used at the trading post

"35 now, and the rest later, if it's as good an evening as it looks" he said as they walked.

The mirrors on a stall reflected that the figure was still following them. "You don't usually get girls like you around here - they've always got too many legs, or too many heads..."

"It pays to be unique" she told him lightly, even managing to pull of what looked like a coy blush; for the look of it she even took his arm,_ 'you just make friends wherever you go, don't you?" _she whispered lowly

_"Somehow doing the right thing makes more enemies than friends"_ he whispered back, and then, louder, "I've been to places you wouldn't believe - that's the great thing about being a captain, you get to go all around the universe - see those stars up there - I've been to so many..."

"Ooh tell me more," Rio purred, in a voice no one except Ellandanen got to hear, Jack was sure (privately he had to admit, she was actually turning him on slightly, though he'd have to be on his final deathbed before he'd tell her that!) "I've always wanted to see stars"

"I've been travelling for years, I've been to all sorts of places. Best place was Earth - but things got heavy, you know how things go - but I've been to other places, once went to a planet where there were gems just littered over the ground, everywhere, only problem was the giant scorpions trying to eat anything that moved..."

_'Still being watched?'_ Rio asked, leaning in, making it look as if she were whispering something filthy,_ 'how do you get yourself into these situations, Jacky?"_

_"Unfortunately yes, and by saving people's lives, this time" _

She giggled, loudly for show, and turned the blushing up a notch, "you DO know how to turn a girl's head, wicked man" (mentally she was screaming at him to hurry up and lose these people)

Jack pulled Rio into a store selling what could only be described as a poor synthesised rum-like liquid of high alcoholic content and little taste, because anything less technical would require much swearing.

"Charming" she told him, "like Soho after dark…there's energy here"

"And pickpockets, love." Jack had swiped someone's wallet already - he was going to need papers and another change of identity, by the looks of things. "but I'm not thinking of taking my money back..."

"You're insane, darling. You know that?" she told him dryly, the smell of the booze in this place was starting to make her eyes water

"I work on the good ship Rust Bucket, I'd have thought that would be obvious."

Jack pulled up a stool at the bar. It was sticky, but he didn't want to think about that. "How about a drink for me and the lovely lady?"

"That's most kind," she sat beside him, "have they got any of that 'Mudder's Milk'?" she was now praying for two things, firstly that they'd get away and secondly being an accessory wasn't going to count against her

"We don't have posh stuff like that here, missy - that's Import, that is. We have Krum, White Krum, and Cheap Krum. And as you are a special customer, we do have one thing from the Imports - Merciless." There were two bottles of 'Merciless' behind the bar – the bottle was neon green and the label purported it to be 200% alcohol and 50% k'djuga berries.

"Oh, I'll have some of that," she gave the barman a sweet 'maybe I'll go home with you look' that Jack hadn't known she was capable of.

Jack faked a look at Rio and inwardly thanked his lucky stars that the girl was already dead and thus that drinking rat-poison mixed with alcohol wasn't going to kill her.

He ordered something less lethal, Rio seemed fascinated by the colour of the drink when it came, a disturbingly bright magenta colour, but not too badly put off by the scent, not to mention the syrup-thick texture. She took a sip and…hiccupped before she turned to Jack

_"Mãe santamente de Maria do cordeiro. Contente eu estou já inoperante, ele dar-me-ia a falha de fígado imediatamente!"_ she announced

"That was definitely different to the Mudder's Milk," she said finally, in English…then remembered she was supposed to be Jack's Painted Woman for the next however long this was going to be and leaned in towards him, "so what can I do for you tonight?"

"Well, I am going to see if there's any room at the inn..."

"Mmh hmm?" Rio was reminding him an awful lot of her brother right now, her seduction techniques were similar, except he remembered that Janeiro had been aiming to be the dominant one (i.e. the male role) whilst Rio was supposed to be aiming to be the submissive partner (i.e. the feminine role) then again he'd heard twins were supposed to have similar mannerisms but he couldn't remember if that was for identical or paternal twins.

"You going to show me the stars, Captain?" she asked in that purr again

"Need to pay for the room, first."

* * *

Jack booked a room for the evening, and was glad to lead Rio up away from prying eyes.

Those following him had not been blatant enough to eavesdrop, and despite the place being theoretically a space-age trading post, it was a run-down red-light district that looked half-way between a sleazy dive in the wrong part of some American big city the contents of an intergalactic bestiary (the majority of the clientele weren't human) and a stereotype fantasy tavern, except with more mess and worse beer.

Well, Krum, anyway.

It was a good place to hide.

"Oh baby, you take me to the most amazing places," Rio giggled, not daring to risk sitting on the bed…it really didn't look much safer than the rest of the planet.

Jack didn't even put the overcoat he'd taken from the very limited staff-clothing supplies on it.

Something in there wriggled.

"Looks like that bed's already... occupied. We can talk freely now, but one of us is going to have to do some serious screaming in a minute for effect. Nobody followed us up the staircase. As they're already following me here - I'm surprised they didn't simply stop me as I left the ship - and as I'm theoretically supposed to stay on the ship, there's no way I am going to legitimately get out of here. I've found some ID - the previous owner was far too careless, so once I'm out of this city, and away from my bosses, I should be able to reinvent myself long enough to get to a rift..."

"Or we could just do this the easy way and let ME make a portal here" she interrupted him gently, by putting her hand over his mouth

"I need to at least give the appearance of going back on ship. If I vanish off the ship, without having left, then it won't look like I've run, so they won't go looking for me. If we - I - mess my room up a bit first, will look like someone else found me first. I don't want trouble following me to Terra"

"Mmh, OK, I suppose…" Rio looked vaguely disappointed at not being able to just leave right now, but she rallied quite well, "and give the man his wallet back on the way out, Harkness. That's sin by association I don't really need. My evaluation is coming up soon"

"You saw that?"

"It's not hard to gather after the comment about having a new ID and the previous owner being careless with it'" she told him

"I wasn't hiding the fact I'd stolen it, I was just a little annoyed that I'd been more obvious than I'd thought in stealing it. I'm losing my touch..."

"Only to me, Jack. Only to me" she drew in a breath that he knew she didn't really need, "how long do you need to be making noise for?"

"I don't know - how good a whore do you want them to think you are?"

"I don't really want anyone to think I'm a whore. But if it's to save your skin…baby, I'm the best you'll never have" she tilted her head and smiled, "…risk jumping on the bed?"

"Only if there's a coat between me and whatever else is in there"

From nowhere, with a slight flick of her hands, Rio produced her coat, like a stage magician producing a handkerchief, a pure black…what was it made of?…cloak, which she laid neatly on the bed. (It was the cleanest thing in the place)

Jack gave the bed an experimental prod. It produced a suitable squeak - thankfully one of a worn out spring mattress that should have been replaced decades ago rather than one of rats being crushed to death. "Well, that's one thing on our favour."

"Why don't you just summon Ianto here and hide in the bathroom, then I wouldn't have to pretend."

"I can't" she said folding her arms across her chest, "mostly because he's with Matthew who's teaching him how to use his wings." she sat on the bed, it creaked as expected

"Well, we'll just have to make some noise" - and with that he bopped her with a pillow.

"Ai!" she yelped, "Oh I'm going to make you scream like a bitch, Harkness," so saying she picked up the other pillow and hit him in the face with it

Jack stifled a laugh, faked some moans and batted her with the pillow again.

They continued fighting for quite awhile, making a lot of noise on the bed and outrageously faked vocal noises; until Jack got out of breath and eventually had to lie down on the robe covered bed.

"Was it good for you too?" Rio asked, dropping the pillow

"That is the most childish thing I've done in over a thousand years... and I feel considerably better for it, actually."

"S'good to be childish sometimes, does you good, or so Nana Mortiis used to say"

"So there was actually a Nana Mortiis, and Azriel didn't just conjure you to bash me with pillows, then?"

"Cheeky," she poked him in the sternum, "nice to see you acting like yourself again"

"What? I'm the perfectly dignified immortal captain of an intergalactic freighter, very sensible, cunning and heroic in all fields. And I absolutely didn't have a pillow-fight like a 12 year old, and I'm perfectly honest all the time absolutely."

"And you can say that with a straight face?"

"Yes."

The straight face lasted all of thirty seconds. And that was stretching the seconds out a bit.

"Oh yeah, you're back," Rio lay back so they were side by side, not actually touching though, "so is this post-coital cuddling in Jack Harkness world?" she teased

"No, that involves more Ianto and less disgusting tavern bed"

"You do nothing for my ego, Jack. Just as well" she rolled her shoulders, he heard bones click as she did, "this planet's a dump. Half of the people are near dying, the others have had 'near death', I can sense that much; no wonder I'm visible here; makes me want to instigate a union"

"This place is one of the only parallel human settlements to 21stC Earth. They think the generic term for "human" is "American" here - I'm not going to ask why. I don't know if trade unions are legal here... the guys who run this place make Thatcher look like a communist."

"I always thought Thatcher was a man in a dress"

"That was one skirt I wasn't taking a look under."

"If I wasn't dead, I'd've had a heart attack…someone you weren't willing to try? The universe is ending"

"I do have some levels of taste…Anyway, can you and your elfy husband make a portal out of the ship? - just to the nearest Rift, in case they can trace it."

"He has a name you know…but yes, it's possible. The things I do for you, Harkness" Rio touched his nose with her finger tip, "OK, I think you've had enough. Go back to the ship. I'll race ya"

"Ellenthanden? Denendanen? Elmerfannen?" he could never remember the nerd's name, it was some unpronounceable elfin name.

"Ellendanen. Just call him 'Danen for short, it's easier," she started fading, "see you soon, lover man" and she was gone.

"Wait! you need to walk out of here...Rio? Ri.. oh, I give up."

TBC

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ I really enjoyed writing this one. _

_Hats off to my ever delightful co-author Carolin for coming up with the booze names for this one, applaud her please. (except for 'Mudder's Milk', that's from 'Firefly'. For those of you who don't know, to quote the show: "They call it 'Mudder's Milk'. All the protein of your Grandma's best turkey dinner, plus 15% alcohol")_

_**Jack:**__ Y'know, I probably wouldn't have minded having both Mortiis Twins at one point…that'd be pretty hot…_

_**Kate:**__ (suspicious) What's your point?_

_**Jack:**__ Any chance of you writing me an AU-threesome-twinscest-smut?_

_**Kate:**__ (facepalm)_

**_Rio:_**_ (from off-screen) Keep dreaming!_

**Translation**

**Portuguese (Brazil)**

_**Mãe santamente de Maria do cordeiro. Contente eu estou já inoperante, ele dar-me-ia a falha de fígado imediatamente! **_= Holy Maria Mother of The Lamb. Glad I am already dead, it would give me liver failure instantly!


	14. Learn to Fly

_**Kate's Note:**__ Well this one is a fun chapter; it's all about flying, if you hadn't gleaned that from the title (you're clever people)_

_As thank you to everyone who's reviewed and stuck with us so far, here's a treat. Jack!_

_**Jack:**__ (offstage) I won't do it!_

_**Kate:**__ Now is not the time for shyness! You'll enjoy it really, you know you will._

_**Jack:**__ (comes out – body language suggests he's been pushed out. He's also nekkid save for his coat) I hate you sometimes._

_**Kate:**__ Shut up and be a good boy. Right, EVERYONE who reviewed gets to smack Jack on the backside. Be as rough as you like, he likes it really._

_**Jack:**__ I'm pretty certain '100 hits' is just an internet term (actually nervous)_

_**Kate:**__ You're right…consider it a birthday spanking!_

_And now we get to what you're actually here for, whilst Jack's bracing himself._

* * *

It was early in the morning, wherever they were, but judging from the sun breaking through the mist, it was going to be quite a nice day.

Ianto stood facing Matthew, they both had their wings out; the technically-younger boy had expressed appreciation for Ianto's wings before materialising his own (his materialisation wasn't as painful as Rio's had seemed, it did make the Welshman wonder what the boy had done to become a reaper though)

Matthew's wings were the same as a crows, seemingly entirely black but on closer inspection had dull shiny blues and pinks mixed in.

"Right-o," Matthew said, wings flexing and slightly shifting the grey woollen jacket of what had to be an approximation of his old school uniform, "do you know anything about flight?"

"Birds do it, planes do it, helicopters manage it somehow, and it has something to do with the difference of air pressure above and below the curvature of the wing..."

Matthew gave him a look. "…you know the technological side. But what do you KNOW?"

"About Reapers? That I think too hard and have to have faith in things and concentrate and relax at once and pay more attention to Rio."

This made the younger boy laugh slightly before he sobered.

"Perhaps I should phrase it another way?" he said, as if to himself, "how do you feel about flying?"

"Pretty nervous, to be honest."

"Well don't be, it is as easy as falling off a penny-farthing. Did not Da Vinci say: once you have tasted flight you will ever walk with your head turned skyward. For there you shall have been and to there you shall long to return'?"

"Do you think he ever built that hang-glider?"

"I have no idea, he certainly came up with many things…now, first thing to know: do not look at the ground, not on the first flight at any rate. Am I clear?"

"Do not look at the ground. Understood."

"Should the temptation present itself, you quell it immediately and cast your gaze upward."

Ianto couldn't help but think that Matthew sounded a lot like an old-fashioned teacher…but given the era he came from…

"Understood."

"Excellent" Matthew nodded, "Now, for flight, I trust it has been explained that initially a 'run up' is required?"

"Yes, Azriel explained that."

"Good, so, step up," he gestured to the ledge of the old stone tower they were standing on, "and spread your wings"

Ianto did as he was told, and tried exceedingly hard not to look down. He focused his gaze on a wisp of distant cloud floating gently across the dawn, and reminded himself that as he was already dead, jumping from this height was not suicide.

Matthew stepped up beside him, "Now…jump man!"

Ianto was finding the entire idea of leaping from the roof of a building like this a lot more nerve-wracking than was logical. It took him two or three non-starts before he finally struck the courage to leap. For a few sickening seconds he struggled in strange contortions, flailing limbs and shutting his eyes to avoid seeing the ground. The wind whistled past him and desperation took him.

At last, when he thought he must surely hit the ground - which, thankfully would not really hurt him, as he did not really exist, he finally figured the sequence of movements that granted flight and first stopped falling, and then realised he was starting to soar. It was the most liberating feeling in the world, more liberating than anything imaginable, and as he finally looked up to the dawn, he realised that he would now and forever, as Mathew and Leonardo before him had said, ever walk with his head turned skyward

"Good! Good!" Matthew's voice said, the boy was in flight beside him, wings fluttering somewhat lazily, "fun, isn't it?"

"Fun is an understatement"

Matthew treated him to one of his sickly-but-sincere smiles…then flew a circle around him easily; he'd obviously been doing this a long time

"The sky is so beautiful up here; it's so different to being in an airplane!"

"I've never flown in one of those contraptions, but I will agree with you on the beauty of this. This is true freedom"

"Birds are so lucky"

"Even birds don't spend all of their time in the air…speaking of which, it does bring me to my next topic…landing."

He grabbed Ianto's hand and got him to turn before he let go (maybe a second after he politely should have) "follow my example," he flew back towards the tower, using an air current to move himself up until he was almost in a standing position and rode it out until he touched down neatly, without even a stumble or turned ankle

Ianto managed to almost instinctively glide back on the thermal, which he was rather surprised about, as he had thought that being by far the hardest part, but it was actual landing that foiled him, as momentum pitched him forwards long after his feet touched stone and he stumbled forwards, nearly taking off again before finally landing flat on his face.

Thankfully all that was hurt was his dignity.

He heard a slight laugh come from Matthew before the boy cleared his throat and gathered himself, offering Ianto a hand to help him up

"Not bad," he said sombrely, mouth curving with a smile he was trying to repress

"Could have been better"

"I would have been very surprised had you mastered it first time," Matthew told hi, pulling him up to his feet, the boy was incredibly strong, "it is akin to learning to walk. Sometimes you fall in the early days; at least you didn't crash into the ground"

"That would have been scary"

"Would only have hurt slightly, might mar your good looks for a few moments but that would fix itself "

"Good to know."

"Do you always wear suits?" Matthew asked, seemingly at random

"Most of the time."

"You don't ever take them off?" Matthew tilted his head in what could have been called a sweetly coy look…almost as if he were flirting…

"Not in public"

The blonde boy bit his lip and blushed crimson, some thought had just crossed his mind that he wasn't sure he should voice

"Are you OK?"

"Uh…yes…I am…I'm just…" Matthew wiped his hand down his face in obvious frustration. Sometimes he seriously disliked this aspect of being a reaper i.e. he couldn't lie.

"I think I rather fancy you," he said honestly

"Uh..." Ianto really didn't no what to say, "You're, you're very nice from what I've met of you, and um, um, I have a boyfriend, and there's quite an age difference and..."

"Technically I'm over 100," the boy pointed out in an amiable tone of voice, he wasn't flirting now, "though technically I'm also still a 15 year old boy, still have hormones which is a nuisance…I suppose you remind me of my boyfriend from when I was alive" his blush diminished a little as he explained.

"What happened to him over the last century? Do you know?"

"Shot down in the Great War at twenty-five," came the prompt answer, "married but no children…not surprising."

"I'm sorry to hear that. From what I heard, it was a horrible war..."

"We were busy then…felt like every moment someone crossed over…most of my school friends did. I suppose it's fortunate that I broke my neck or it's likely I would have enlisted with them"

"I suppose at least they didn't come home madmen driven insane by what happened out there - that can't have been much of a life."

"It was the done thing, you know. We were the future of the cabinet," Matthew drew himself up and spoke in a pompous voice, likely imitating one of his teachers, "it was our duty to set an example, to produce strong heirs to lead the country" he deflated, "not that I was interested in producing heirs. I had four older brothers for that"

"Cabinet?"

"Government," the boy explained, "going into politics was deemed the best move for anyone from our school, being a doctor or a lawyer were close runners for second and third"

"I guessed you meant government... It must have been a very... uh, respected establishment, your school."

Matthew wrinkled up his nose in distaste, "I hated almost every moment at Brookfield. Only bright spot of the week was English with Mr Chipping. Oh, and art," the boy looked almost whimsical, "I loved to paint…"

"Do you paint now?"

"Not much time to, but I try to when I can…mostly blacks and blues"

"Picasso did that, I think"

Matthew looked blankly at him; he hadn't heard of 'Picasso' before and hadn't been the one to reap the man to find out

"Awkwardness aside…you enjoyed the flight? Do you believe you could do it solo?"

"Maybe not quite yet. I still can't look down.…"

"We'll keep practicing, but it may have to wait, the sun's coming up and we may not be visible to most humans but I'd still like to get back to my own dwelling before they begin their day"

"You have a house?"

"A small one, most reapers do…it is…let me think…like a studio apartment I believe the phrase is now?"

Ianto was thinking 'artist's garret'.

"You're welcome to come back with me for some tea" Matthew invited, though whether he was flirting again or sincerely being nice was anyone guess

"Thank you very much for the offer - if Azriel and Rio give me time off for socialising, I might just take it up."

"I understand," Matthew nodded slowly, "but the offer is there should you want to take me up on it," he looked out towards the rising dawn, "I miss…" he started, but then he shook his head gently, "never mind." he turned back to Ianto and smiled his sickly-smile "I can at least escort you back to your current residence, yes?"

"I'm staying with Rio at the moment. I don't really have a "residence" per se,"

"That's what I meant," Matthew confirmed with a small shrug, "I've never been to the elf city. Well, no further than Rio's home, strictly business"

The boy stood back on the ledge and stretched out his wings, "one more flight for the road?"

"Sounds like a plan"

Matthew spent a few moments in the air showing off with tricks. He'd been flying for such a long time (technically) that he'd actually dedicated some time to turning it into an art form. He literally flew circles around Ianto a few times

Ianto was content to fly even in the most 'mundane' manner - to him the very idea of flying was filled with freedom and promise. The landscape was like looking at a tiny model land, the people weren't visible, most still being inside and, even this early, the sun was warm. It made you feel alive, at least in the metaphorical sense

"Hello" Matthew's face suddenly appeared under his

"Hi"

"Never gets old, flying. I've done it a lot and I still love it," the boy moved sideways and up, almost wing tip to wing tip with Ianto, "Closer my lord I am to thee!" he laughed

"I can see why people thought Heaven was in the sky"

"Mm," Matthew actually rolled and, incredibly, flew upside down for a few moments before he rolled back to fly properly, "it is easy to see and even easier to see why Da Vinci and others dreamed of flying like this. Da Vinci wasn't the first"

"Icarus?"

"Icarus was fictional. No, there was a tenth century monk who made himself a pair of wings, almost like a modern hand glider, and threw himself off the abbey roof…where he promptly crashed to the ground and broke both of his legs."

"Ow, that must have been a fate worse than death back then."

Matthew looked mirthful, "he told his abbot that he knew what he had done wrong…and the abbot forbade him from ever trying again!"

"I can't really blame him. That must have hurt."

"I'd suspect so, particularly since back then a broken leg could mean amputation"

"The miracles of modern medicine..."

Matthew moved closer and lightly took hold of Ianto's hand, though surprisingly, it turned out not to be a form of flirtation this time, but guidance, Matthew'd decided to show him the correct way to land without falling on your face

He smiled once they were on the tower again and hugged Ianto without thinking…before he drew away apologising for his behaviour.

Ianto wasn't so fazed by being hugged. It was still awkward, but not the most awkward thing Matthew had done.

"Sorry," the boy apologised again, "blame my perpetual youth," he was actually blushing, it was almost adorable

"You should explore Avalon, it's a nice city."

"Really? As I said, I've never been able to. I could look, since I believe we're done with flight for now"

"Well, what I've seen is really nice"

There was silence between them for awhile, the conversation having run dry, then Matthew said: "He means a lot to you, this immortal man, doesn't he?"

"Yes, yes he does."

Ianto didn't feel like telling Matthew he had chosen to become this with the other choice being Paradise, when the others had been faced with Reaping or the Flames.

The boy nodded…then paused as if listening to a voice only he could hear.

"Can you find your own way back?" He asked after a few moments, "Seems I've been called to work"

"Yes, I've even managed to not arrive somewhere six feet off the ground."

"Excellent, I'll see you again," Matthew waved and instead of flying, he simply vanished, leaving Ianto alone with the incredible view from the church tower

Ianto had wanted to thank him before he left, but he'd vanished too quickly. With nowhere to be in a rush, he sat down on the edge, between the castellations, and admired the dawn, not realising that he had faded to invisibility, and that it would take a very special sort of mortal to be able to see him now.

…he also didn't realise that one of said sort of mortals was staring at him from the ground

Said mortal wasn't really fazed by seeing a winged angelic-looking being perched on a church spire. This was Rushing-by-Quickly, and it was one of the least weird things she'd seen all week.

Given that she was _'not godmother. I'm not having that __**Bast'n**__anywhere near my baby'_ to a baby angel, an adult one wasn't all that surprising

The fact that this was actually a deceased spirit working for an angelic department would not have fazed her either, considering every Tuesday night she ran the séances at the village hall.

Seeing the reaper on the tower only made her pause before she re-adjusted the shoulder-strap on her bag and continued off towards the bus-stop, her skirt swish-swishing as she walked.

Ianto probably would have stayed there for longer…had his stomach not chosen that moment to decide that he must be hungry and gurgled quite loudly.

"I wonder if Rio's got any of those cakes from that bakery on the avenue" he said to no-one in particular, before blinking out of existence from the tower, and blinking into existence in 'Danen's kitchen.

There was a note on the kitchen table with his name on it.

_'Ianto – _

_Gone to work on something important. You'll know when you see._

_'Danen took Riaden to work with him so you don't need to worry about being left alone with the baby [winking face]_

_Cakes in the bread bin if you're hungry (See? I think of you all the time) _

_See you later _

_R. E. Mortiis_

Ianto went over to the breadbin, and life was good.

The cake was not a lie.

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ Well this one was fun…plus it had Matthew, little show off and hopeless romantic that he is *pats his head* for anyone curious, the psychic mortal is Cleo, Carolin's OC, and the lady with the dirty gaelic mouth would be my OC Lydia and the 'angel baby' is her adoptive child 'Kipling' Long story, maybe they'll show up again._

_**Jack:**__ (sore) I hate you… (sulks)_

_**Kate:**__ Oh cheer up; you're in the next chapter. You like it when you've a chapter all to yourself._

_**Jack:**__ I want ice…_

_**Kate:**__ you're such a drama queen. Go get dressed._

_**Irish Gaelic Translation**_

_**Bast'n**__ - Bastard_


	15. Best Laid Plans of Immortals and Reapers

_**Kate's Note:**__ Sorry, it's been a while. Trouble uploading for some reason. _

_**Jack:**__ So…no me and how awesome I am?_

_**Kate:**__ No you. But that's temporary. Like the bruising and your inability to sit down_

_**Jack:**__ OK, I'll admit…it WAS kinda fun._

_**Kate:**__ See? There you go. And here comes the next one's long and a little bit gory. _

_**Jack:**_ So t_urn your head if you're squeamish!_

_

* * *

_

Back on another world, on the 'good old' (emphasis on the 'old') ship Rust Bucket, Jack wasn't surprised to find Rio waiting for him on his bed, though apparently she'd seen fit to add leggings to her outfit.

"They think you sexed me to death," she told him without preamble, "you're a super stud"

"Sexed... to death?"

"Metaphorically. In my group of friends, it meant you made me pass out from multiple Big O's" she said with a nod "but that aside…ready to get off this barely-flying excuse for a scrap heap?"

"As long as I don't end up with a bunch of mercenaries tailing me to Avalon"

"Come on, Jack. Have a little faith in your Grim Reaper. When have I ever let you down?"

Jack decided it wasn't the time to complain and point out problems.

"Fine, fine, shall we make this look like a good murder scene? If they think I'm dead - and they don't know about the immortality, and I'm Captain Jack Hatch here…"

'Hatch' had been a spur of the moment decision. He had nearly said Harkness, and then needed to find something else to be quick, and looked around the room on the ship.

"Well, if they think I'm dead, then they probably won't bother to try and kill me again."

"You're going to commit suicide again?" Rio raised an eyebrow at him, "I hope you're going to be slightly more creative this time, mate."

"I wasn't planning on actually dying again. That tends to be quite painful."

"So what're you going to do?"

"I don't know yet, I've only just thought of it."

"Why not spread 'blood' around the place and scream a bit? It'll be a huge scene when they come back and they'll assume your body got dragged off to be done away with…possibly thrown in the river, and I use that term loosely…water shouldn't be purple and bleach ceramic tiles white"

"I've an idea that's still going to be painful, but less painful than killing myself to fake my own death."

"Oh tell me, I'm dying to know…well, not DYING, but you get what I mean"

Jack didn't even bother to roll his eyes at the reaper's bad pun.

"There's a waste-water and sewage disposal chute further along the corridor. It empties straight out into the river. All that's needed is a trail of blood looking like I've been dragged there, and they won't bother to look in the river. It'd probably corrode any body to nothing pretty quick, anyway. They can check whose blood it is too easily for me to skimp on that - it'd be even worse if they thought me a murderer, they'd definitely come looking."

"I can nip a vessel in your finger if you want, those bleed like buggery"

"Are you sure it will bleed enough to be convincing?" Jack had been thinking ahead while talking, and was wondering if the situation really did warrant him committing suicide to fake his own death, something he didn't want to do, because it was indeed incredibly painful, and death itself a horrendous experience, not to mention he did worry that something would happen and he wouldn't wake up again, or that something would happen which would lead to him coming back somewhere unpleasant.

"Trust me…I was a trainee doctor!"

"Fine..." Jack handed Rio his knife and held out a hand.

Rio took both the knife and his hand…then jabbed the blade directly into a vessel in one of his fingertips

Jack flinched just a little.

It wasn't a paper-cut, she'd cut right down through the flesh, and it hurt a lot more than he'd anticipated. It wasn't long before his hand was covered in blood.

An experimental flick sent an array of small dark splatters against the wall. Jack laughed and staggered theatrically, doing his best to fake falling over his trunk into the wall and leaving a dragged handprint down the wall, feigning the bloodied scrabbling of one wounded and struggling desperately to rise up again against their assailant.

Rio watched him; surreptitiously stabbing the now-bloodied knife he'd given her as far into a furnishing as she could, AFTER she'd slashed up his pillows. (Though gory, she felt Jack's amateur dramatics left something to be desired, then again these people weren't the sharpest tools in the box)

"I'm really not getting a died horribly in a pool of blood vibe yet."

"I can cut you some more" she offered, "or do you want me to make the place look more blood soaked? Because I can do that, it's not hard"

"What's it going to entail..."

"I can cut myself…I have 'blood of the undead' coursing through me, technically, plus if I bleed I can't die anyway."

"This place is more advanced than earth and they can tell DNA apart there, so here..."

"Hmm, was just a thought," she shrugged, "I'm not an expert on suicide. Or murder for that matter"

"I am not killing myself."

Rio looked around the room thoughtfully, there was almost nowhere that wasn't covered in specks of Jack's blood…then she looked upwards.

"You still bleeding?" she asked, still looking at the ceiling

"Why?"

She pointed up towards the ceiling…the unbloodied ceiling.

"Hmm, being murdered on the ceiling is definitely original, and you were telling me to be more creative..."

She nodded slowly; "and it'll make them double take about what might've killed you…then possibly dragged your body off to eat it"

"Eaten by a ceiling monster's going to require a lot more blood... Actually, I've had an idea. Ianto was explaining to me how he changed outfits, when he was here, and he said that you can alter things slightly, magically, does that stretch to I don't know... changing the genetic structure of undead reaper blood to look match mine? The hand's started to stop bleeding..."

"I suppose I can do that, there's enough of yours around to copy it fairly accurately," she rolled her shoulders gently, her bones clicked once more as she did (he wished she'd stop that, it was creepy, he swore he could hear extra bones moving in there)

She then took up the knife and neatly slit both of her wrists, which started to bleed profusely almost immediately. Her blood was thick and a little darker than a human's would be but then again, she didn't need to breathe

Jack grimaced. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"Meh," She made a so-so gesture with one hand, which sprayed some of her blood around before she stood on the desk chair and began creating a huge bloody stain on the ceiling, attempting to make it look like something had held Jack up there whilst he was bleeding,

It was almost artistic…if ones tastes swung that way.

"You know what would really perfect that?"

"What?"

"A Jack-print, but I don't think that's feasible..."

"Jack-print…you want to leave a body print up here?"

"If I'm supposed to be pinned to the ceiling, then it had better look like I've been pinned to the ceiling. I do rather like the scrabbled look though"

"Almost looks like the kitchen in my flat did…I can throw you up if you want, leave a print, bet you never knew that I'm stronger than I look, huh?"

"I didn't. You reapers amaze me every time we meet"

"Part of the job occasionally includes pushing heavy people through their doorway," without preamble she grabbed him by the shirt and tossed him upwards as if he weighed the same as a rag doll, then she put him back down quickly before he could fall back down and hurt himself worse than the impact with the ceiling had, "there, that looks pretty damned convincing to me"

Jack looked up. "Wonderful, you're quite the artist, Rio…"

"Only if you happen to be a fan of Hermann Nitsch's yearly 'crucifiction' shows," she replied dryly, setting to the actually pretty hard task of changing her own blood to match Jack's, it required a lot more concentration than changing her clothing did.

"And now I'm all bloodied, you can drag me into the sewer, too." He continued, tactfully ignoring her comment

"Determined to make it realistic, aren't you?"

"This is a lot more interesting than sitting around playing solitaire…You can't imagine what unbelievably bad company the crew have been since the accident."

"Like I believe that _you_ play solitaire," she told him, grabbing onto an arm

"Ok, so it wasn't solitaire..." he said, going obligingly limp

"Five card stud, that's more you," she started dragging him, making sure to leave blood trails, halfway out the door, she paused, "I have a better idea than me dragging you"

"It had better not involve any being levitated, I hate being levitated."

"No levitation for you," Rio let go of his arm and clicked her fingers a few times, "Shuck," she cooed, "Shuck-shuck, c'mere sweetie…"

"What's a 'Shuck'? Don't tell me you've got an actual ceiling monster..."

"Don't be silly…don't you know anything about folklore," the reaper girl was suddenly holding what looked like a small black puppy in her arms. It could, at first sight, have been mistaken for a normal dog…except for the blood-red coloured eyes.

"This," she gestured to the puppy, "Is my Shuck. Traditionally, messengers of God despite the horrific appearance, they're used to send messages to the wicked who desecrate churches and bend the Christian religion for their own warped purposes. In my case, he eats demons who'd like nothing more than to eat ME"

"Demons eat reapers. Interesting. I thought Count Chocula, at first, then possibly value supermarket food, because that's plain evil... "

Rio raised an eyebrow at him, "Do you want to hear what he's going to do or can I leave you in a puddle of my slash your blood?"

"I'll hear your plan" There was a pause. "But you've got to admit, cheap supermarket food can be rotten."

"Well that's a given. Anyway," she gestured to the puppy, it yawned sleepily at him, "Shuck here is going to be the one to drag you 'corpse' to the river. Means I don't have to be accused of being a killer and it'll put the fear of God into these people and might even encourage the planting of a few trees,"

"I don't think they believe in God out here. The only thing they worship is profit, hence the Rust Bucket here." He gave the wall a tap, it rang hollow, and the sound of something, maybe dust, maybe rust, maybe important parts of wall, could be heard falling down into the metallic bowels of the ship.

"You don't believe me, do you?" she put the puppy on the floor, "Shuck," she cooed at it, it looked up questioningly, "change please, show Jack why you're God's favourite form of fear-inducement"

The puppy gave Rio an adorable look. The kind that said "Alright, but I want to chase that femur around the ether all evening for this."

For a few seconds it just sat there as if the only threat it might hold to a demon was killing it with sugar induced heart attack; for something with red eyes it was ridiculously adorable, with a cuter expression that even the sweetest little Spaniel.

But that was not for long…

The shift was remarkably rapid. It's neck bulged and swelled with growing muscle, its haunches rose and its claws lengthened. With a growl his jaws turned to the vast maw of a killing machine, and its eyes burned with the intensity of an inferno.

"Who's a good boy?" she patted the monster on the head fondly, as if it hadn't changed at all, "WHO'S a good boy? Shuck's a good boy," she looked at Jack, "scared yet?"

"Nah, I'm Captain Jack, hero, space warrior, yadda yadda - the end of the world didn't even faze me...." There was a pause. It was a protracted pause. "Why is he looking at me like that?"

The Shuck was indeed looking at Jack as if he might be a snack. The kind of look that said 'I can eat you without a problem. Your neck might offer some resistance but only briefly'

"There's half a pork-pie on a 'paper' plate on my bed-side table. He can have it as long as he doesn't think I'm "long-pork" and want the rest of his dinner."

"Shuck, no no, Jack is not for eating, Jack is our friend, we're here to help him. OK?" she scratched Shuck under the chin to pacify him, "Now, I want you to grab Jack by the collar, he's going to play dead for you, and drag him to the riverside, he'll tell you where to drop him…don't eat any of him and you can have the nice porkpie," (she shuddered visibly, as vegetarians do when tempting carnivores with meat products) "when you get there. Understand?"

The great black beast nodded its huge head, obvious understanding and briefly butted her side affectionately before carefully grabbing Jack's shirt collar.

The hound was as huge, and he could feel its wet, warm breath on the back of his head, and hear the adjustments of its cavernous jaw as it sought the most comfortable way to drag him. He tried to put it out of his head that was being dragged along by a giant dog at least as big as he was if not bigger. It seemed vast from his 'vantage' point on the floor, as if he was being towered over by a horse

"Shuck, try not to bump him too much as you go, I'd like him in tact," Rio called as the Shuck began to drag Jack from the ship, gingerly picking up the pie and triple wrapping it in an almost-clean sheet she found in a cupboard.

The good ship Rust Bucket did not have completely clean sheets. It probably didn't have completely clean anything. Even the official notices had swearing under the grime.

The beast, meanwhile, began dragging Jack along the rough and dirty streets, drawing horrified gasps, screams of fear and, surprisingly, one of two 'Holy Mary, mother of God!'s' (Apparently there were a few humans who had heard of God here after all. )

The money-loving inhabitants of the planet were too terrified by the sight of a great huge beast, one none of them had even heard of before, dragging a 'corpse' through the streets, blood still dripping from its maw, to even think about attacking it as it dragged it's prize towards the canals

One muttered something about how he'd known all along that toxic waste and stray dogs didn't mix.

The 'dog' continued dragging Jack until it reached a deserted part of the canal, where it promptly let go of him and instantly shrank back down to its former 'adorable' shape, it scratched its ear with a hind paw, looking almost too innocent

"That, that... is a very interesting dog; I think it deserves its pie now. It's looking at me again, and those cute eyes can't fool me now."

"It's a shuck," Rio said, appearing once more, "nothing created by God is ever 'not interesting'…except maybe accountants" she knelt down and started hand-feeding the puppy the pork pie, it wolfed it eagerly

"But with accountants, one could argue that God created them and Satan corrupted them."

"I suppose…" once the 'dog' had eaten the last crumb of pie, she picked it up with ease, "NOW are you ready to leave?"

"It depends on how many giant dogs there are in Avalon"

"Shuck's the only one, and stop putting conditions on it. I'm going to open the portal on this side now, 'Danen will open one on the other, you walk through it and don't look back, got it?"

"Yes ma'am - hey, do I get spanked if I'm a naughty boy?"

"I'm sure Ianto'd be glad to oblige oh creator of 'Naked Hide and Seek'" she deadpanned; Shuck hopped down from her arms to sit at her feet as she began drawing on an already graffitied wall with white chalk she took from her pocket; a plain white circle, tall enough for Jack to walk through without bumping himself, which she put her hands against in concentration…the bricks rippled after a few moments

"I thought these portals had arcane sigils and strange incantations..."

"Don't believe everything you read…go on, step through"

she neglected to tell him that 'Danen was hopefully taking care of that on the other side

It was most likely - otherwise her circle would have not had anything to connect to, and the enchanted chalk would be nothing but a chalky circle on a retaining wall by the riverbank.

But portals were always dangerous business, even if 'Danen's were well enough drawn to remain sealed once closed, and to be actually very accurate in destination; the best they'd be able to guarantee was it'd send him to…within a fair distance of Avalon

The elf had not managed to forge an object based link between two places, because for that he would have needed objects from both the location of the portal entrance, and its connection on the poisoned planet Jack had ended up on. Jack might just end up walking a short way to the city…but then again, he was supposed to be 'exploring' the world of Terra

Depending on what sort of mood the elf was in, he might have thought it prudent to leave Jack in New Wales, hoping it would be familiar.

"Just go," she told him cheerily, "I'll see you there," so saying she gave him a sharp push in the right direction, only it turned out to be harder than she'd intended and it sent him through head first

Jack yelled something not repeatable in polite company.

Reaper girls were a lot stronger than they looked.

"Oops!" she called after him, "sorry! Try to land on something SOFT!!"

* * *

Jack, as it happened, did land on something soft, well, wet, rather, as he fell right off the bridge to Avalon, and down into the river.

The guards in the hut looked thoroughly in the handbook for 'random apparition of human' but couldn't find it, and after discussing whether the human might be a dangerous wizard - a discussion concluding that dangerous wizards know not to fall in the river - went out to rescue him.

In rescuing him, they completely obscured and destroyed the chalk sigils that had been drawn on the bridge - something 'Danen had explained to them in great detail earlier, which they had ignored on account that every other word he had spoken had been incomprehensible technical jargon. 'Danen had thought it not prudent to portal a stranger into the heart of the city and thus override the council policy on humans and immigration.

Jack spat out the river water that'd collected in his nose and mouth…oddly enough it was clean and not the rank pond water he'd first thought it to be

He took the few seconds of getting his bearings back to take in his surrounds.

So THIS was Terra, huh?

There was a duck quacking crossly and flapping off into some more distant plant life, reeds growing on the riverbank, a lush forest on one side, and a vast hedge at the top on the other side.

He turned around and looked up.

He was standing on a bank on the forest side of the river, looking up at very ornate stone bridge that unfortunately lacked a handrail. There was red and white ribbon –medieval hazard tape - and some stubs of unbroken and very clearly dismantled metal indicating that sometime recently something large had broken the railing and they'd been taken away for repair. He could hear people arguing frantically, but in the tones of a heated debate rather than an impassioned argument above him.

He couldn't make out what the argument was about - it sounded to be in some foreign language he didn't recognise. The argument stopped, and after some barely audible footsteps, two figures appeared on the bridge. Their clothes, although elegant and unearthly, were designed in the universal language of military dress.

They even had swords.

Oh, and a cross bow.

They were far too beautiful to be anything other than elves.

"Hi," he greeted, well aware that he was still soaking wet, "what's goin' on?"

"Are you from Albion?" One shouted down. The voice had an accent he recognised as similar to 'Danen's, but more pronounced. 'Danen had accumulated Englishness to the point where he would not have looked out of place, apart from the pointed ears, in a meeting of Oxford dons.

The two elves stood up properly again, and conferred with each other in Elvish again. "ROMAN!" Was one's exclamation. The other was trying to calm him down, and the two started debating again. The taller one seemed to have won the debate, and the shorter one seemed to be rather put-out by the conclusion, and then both walked to the forest side of the river, and somehow miraculously staying unmuddied, came down to Jack.

Jack blinked…Roman? Had he said something wrong?

"Uh…guys? Hello?" he called, "what's the deal here?"

"Are you a Roman?"

This was asked by the shorter one, despite the fact the taller one said something like "Even if he was, he wouldn't say" but in Elfish.

"No…do I LOOK Italian to you guys?" he asked, deciding to give them one of his 'put them at ease' grins

The shorter elf looked blank for a minute. "What is an 'Italian'?" The elf rolled the unfamiliar word around his mouth like a child with a gobstopper.

"Look, I'm not a Roman, OK? I'm here to see someone. C'mon, I'm expected by a friend inside the…this IS Avalon city right?"

"No, this is the Imperial Place of Her Majesty Catriona" That was laden with sarcasm that dripped thickly through the shorter elf's accent. "Of course this is Avalon."

The taller elf apologised on behalf of his shorter comrade, and said something about panthers, which was garbled in translation.

"Who are you, and who are you expected to be seeing?" The elf paused. "I don't expect you have any papers, do you?" The taller elf looked really hopeful, as if he actually genuinely wanted Jack to have papers. "You won't believe how many forms there are if you don't have papers."

"Papers? No…and I'm here to see Ianto. Ianto Jones?"| he hoped they knew Ianto or if not… "and Miss Rio……" he faltered and tried to remember Rio's last name, it'd been so long since he'd first heard it, since she'd used it around him…… "Miss Rio Mortiis"

"Why is it always that little blue-haired..." The shorter elf sighed and stopped mid-sentence.

"We will send them a sprite, and if they really are expecting you, they will fetch you, and they can fill in the paperwork."

"Do you have an identification?"

Jack checked his back pocket, for where he kept his actual wallet…with Jack Harkness' ID and handed it over.

His face was on the card and so officially that was him

Jack Harkness.

"Wow, they have very good artists where you come from - it looks exactly like you!" The elves had obviously not heard of photographs.

"Yeah, they're great. Can I go in now?"

The tall one wasn't going to go without trying to get a picture of himself done like that. "Do you know where I can get painted like that?"

"I'm uh sure I can find you their name at some point. They're a little bit exclusive" (to Old Earth, he added mentally)

"Excellent". The taller elf beamed. His broad smile, combined with the rather extraordinary blondness of his hair made him look something like a cross between a pointy-eared Norwegian and a sunbeam.

"Right…" Jack beamed at him, it was the patented 'very sexy' Jack Harkness grin that hadn't yet failed to work on man, woman, androgens and combinations there of throughout the known universe, "NOW can I go in?"

"Just got to wait for Rio to pick you up." The tall blonde elf paused. "Would you like to sit down and have some fruit?"

The short blonde elf rolled his eyes behind both their backs.

"Sure" looked like he was here for a bit, might as well be comfortable…besides, sitting with two good-looking elves, something most people only got to dream about. What wasn't to like about it?

The two elves escorted Jack up the riverbed, and in looking at him from the rear, realised something that had not been apparent from the front: his back was covered in blood.

The taller elf grimaced as he looked at Jack's apperance, "Do you need a healer?"

Jack turned around.

"Healer?"

He remembered about the blood and being dragged along the floor – actually quite painful through streets that were not much more than potholed tarmac and hardcore…

"Nah, that's from earlier – had a little run in with a rather large dog – I'll be fine."

The taller elf wasn't so sure. "Are you certain?"

The shorter elf muttered something to the taller once.

"I'm fine, really." Jack insisted.

Once they got to the hut he taller elf set out a chair and fetched some fruit from a cupboard. This being Avalon, there was an overabundance of apples in the fruit bowl. In Avalon there were always apples.

The shorter elf was sitting in front of a large ledger, very deliberately ignoring his comrade and the human. He managed to be so very deliberately ignoring them that he was in fact paying attention to them.

"What do I call you guys?" Jack asked, taking and apple and munching on it as if he were starved (Hey, this was fresh. As in 'not been held in stasis for who knew how long')

"I am Vian, and over there is Nassanden."

Nassanden would have made Vian introduce them with rank and "Of the Avalonian Guard" but he was too busy ignoring them, and very clearly fighting the urge to interrupt and correct Vian.

"And you guys guard this gate…keep out the intruders. That's awesome"

"Well, we have other duties sometimes, but at the moment we guard the gate."

"Oh? What other stuff do you do?" Jack was actually openly flirting with Vian by now…no harm in it, it was just eating up time until SOMEONE picked him up, and helped himself to another apple

"Guard the East gate, guard the South gate, guard the North gate, keep the peace at festivals, march on parade. It has been very quiet for the last few centuries. I was hoping if I joined the army I would get to travel, but that has not happened, well, unless you call going to New Wales travel"

"NEW Wales?"

"Did they not say when they left Old Earth?"

The elf was an elf. He was about the same age as Jack, but unlike Jack had not spent millennia buried alive, and had no concept that mortals tended to loose information in illiterate populations, especially over centuries, and "fairy rings" and portal circles had become things of legend and myth, and Avalon mythology too, and that the fleeing magical peoples of old Britain, seeing their world change, had not been too clear on where they were going, or that they were going at all, lest those who would harm them follow.\

"Nope, not a thing" he replied

Before the elf could open his mouth to reply a voice said: "there you are, Jack. Sorry I wasn't here to meet you. Got held up with something"

"Ah, Rio. Good to see you. Did you know the river is wet?".

Jack was still wet, although drying in the sunshine. The weather appeared to be a little more normal that day. Or rather exceedingly summery, which was 'normal' for the Isle of Apples.

"So I've been told, were you waiting long?" he was sure that for her it had probably been less than a second

"Not that long. Spent more time being asked if I was a Roman."

The shorter elf cut Jack a look.

"Ah…you're not a Roman. If anything you look like you come from Albion," she turned to the elf guards, "what do I have to sign to get custody of this one?"

The shorter one straightened up. "Form 42 - 'Temporary custody of non-residents', form 14 - 'Entrance of beings through Fairy Gates' and form 79 'Humans'.

"You may need to fill out form 3 - "Import of magical devices'

"Just pass me the papers and a quill…and what 'magical devices'. Jack's about as magical as a bean sprout"

"I forgot to search him." The taller elf looked like he was thinking better of volunteering.

"No! No searching! He LIKES the searching!" Rio said quickly, "Just please give me the papers to finish and we'll be on our way and you can get back to the important task of guarding the gate"

"No searching? That sounds like you have something to hide."

"I'm not ashamed," Jack said cheerfully, "I'll even strip if you want me to"

Rio's left eye twitched

The idea of a naked Jack seemed to be tempting the taller elf but apparently he had enough professionalism to act on sense rather than lust, which was more than could be said for many elves his age.

There was lust in his eyes, but sense on his face.

Sense seemed to be winning

"Can you just frisk him quickly? I've got something on the stove and I'd like it if it didn't boil over. Otherwise I'll have to go all the way to another world to get a decent pizza take-away" Rio sighed

The short elf took over. "You fill out the forms, I'll frisk the human, and Vian, you make sure nobody sneaks into the city while I'm not looking.

The last half of that sentence reverted back to Elvish, but it was clear enough what it meant as the taller elf went to stand guard, muttering something that translated as: "Yes sir, Captain Grumpybutt"

The shorter elf pretended he hadn't heard, and filled in a short form, before handing Rio a quill, ink and a large stack of forms.

Right now it is worth mentioning that neither the taller or shorter elf were actually short. Both of them were taller than Jack, as the average height for an elf is taller than that for a human to begin with, and the military only recruited the tallest elves.

Jack obediently stuck his arms out, allowing Nassanden room to pat him down as Rio started on the forms…really, HOW many times did one have to say 'I'm responsible for anything this one does' until it lost all meaning?

Vian stood around on the bridge, recalling the image of the dripping human standing by the river. Humans were always more rugged than elves. There were only so many thousand years of refined elegant peacocks an elf could take before it got boring.

Well, refined in appearance.

(Avalon was a lot like Hollywood - it had a fantastic reputation and a large population of beautiful people, but not all of the people were nice and it wasn't paradise. Actually, Hollywood, being populated by humans, was and is a lot more exciting than Avalon. At least to young elves.)

"Hey, You got cold hands, buddy!" Jack shivered slightly as he was roughly patted down

"You are just damp from the river, nothing to do with me."

"Are you sure? Y'know…" he got that leery/sexy grin again, "cold hands are supposed to mean a warm heart…"

"Stop flirting with the guard, Jack," the reaper girl said distractedly, signing her name to Form 17.33.B, subsection 12.1 - damage to the city by guest spontaneously combusting.

"I am not Vian, Captain Harkness, and not all elves are attracted to males."

"Spoil sport," Jack smiled cheerfully, not fazed at all by the attitude.

"I'm sure you will find plenty of pretty, blonde, bored princelings to amuse you later."

Avalon, being run by a council of elders, did not actually have any princes, the elf was just insulting the arrogance of a selection of elves about the same age as Vian. Avalon was probably also the only state in history to specifically call itself a bureaucracy.

"Sorry, not really in the market," the immortal man told the haughty sounding guard. He wondered if the attitude was because he hadn't found anything on Jack.

"Rio, you almost done with the paper work?"

"…you likely to douse yourself in paraffin oil, ignite yourself and enter a flammable building?" she replied

"Err... no. I don't actually enjoy dying in pain"

"Then I'm nearly done"

The shorter elf, having declared on paper there to be nothing obviously illegal on the human, looked up. "If you wish to stay for more than three weeks, you will have to apply for a visa from your home location. Forms can be collected from City Hall."

"OK, got it. Thanks" Jack grinned widely at them as Rio filled in the last form (Damage to the City by Guest Morphing into Unsightly Creature from a Flesh Devouring Species.)

"Right, you may proceed, don't forget to walk through the disinfectant trough." The elf paused. "Oh, and new regulations come in tomorrow, so if you want to leave the city and come back, you'll have to get papers from City Hall."

"THANK you," Rio said, taking Jack's arm, "Come on Jack, we're going to be late for dinner,"

The shorter elf wished them a rather scripted welcome, and Vian waved to them from the bridge as they passed through the checkpoint and through the Hedge.

"Honestly. SO much red tape," the reaper-girl sighed, "my left hand hurts now...well, welcome to Avalon" she gestured to the shining city, "stuff of legends and my home"

Jack had been sent to the South Gate, and before this cardinal road hit the city centre, it went through the residential district. Jack's first glimpse of Avalon was that of Elvish suburbia.

It is said that walking through a city's suburbs tells a visitor a lot more about the city than walking through its centre, as public buildings are propaganda, and private buildings life.

"…nice," he said, "like a Tolkien novel, but without a fellowship of the ring and odd glowing things"

This particular suburb was a series of tree houses; with neighbours having very clearly been copying each other and trying to out do each other. They had all decided to install turrets, with the turret roofs starting as pyramids at the lower end of the scale, and ending as unicorn-horn spirals augmented with decorative mini-turrets and lanterns at the most overblown end of the scale. Horses grazed in the paddocks around the tree-roots - this being Avalon there were no cars, unicorns at the base of flashier tree-houses, kept behind a rather elaborately woven withy fences. There were crystals, glittering ominously with that sense of watching ones every move, mounted to some trees, which were obviously some magical form of CCTV, and the more nouvea-riche the occupants, the taller the hedges and fences grown around their patch.

"I dislike this part of the city…it's pretentious" Rio told him, leading him through it quickly, "makes me glad I don't live in this part"

Half way up one tree, an Elvin woman was having an argument with an Elvin carpenter, whose team was installing a new staircase to a large branch. If Jack had been able to understand Elfish, he would have learnt that not even in Avalon could one find builders that are on budget and on time.

They soon enough came to the part of the city that Rio was heading for…it was pretty but much more…quietly understated. Classy but not in your face like the suburbs had been; the houses were large and built of wood and crystal but lacked the showing off.

'Danen happened to be old money by virtue that he was older than Avalonian money. He was actually older than Avalon. Since his mother's passing he was THE oldest elf within the 'new' Avalon; the last living pure-blood High Elf on Terra, which was why it was such a scandal for him to have taken up with Rio and 'watered down' his blood. The idea of a metropolis had never quite caught on with the elves. This left them with a beautiful city and a fossilising culture.

"Come on in," Rio gently pushed open the front door, it didn't creak, "You're a surprise for him, you know"

Once inside, Jack found that the interior was as tasteful as the outside, but assessing the interior decorating wasn't what he was here for.

"Ianto?" Rio called, "Ian-to, you in?"

"Doing the dishes" Was the reply. Somewhere in a back room, water could be heard running.

"OK…… she looked at Jack, "living room's through this door," she gestured to a pale wood door on the right, "go in and make yourself comfortable…maybe even put a bow on yourself. I'll get him for you." she smiled lightly

"Bow?"

"Joke. Nevermind," she waved a dismissive hand, "go and sit, I'll be right back" so saying she opened the door for him and then headed off presumably towards the kitchen

* * *

_**Kate:**__ I think we should put him in a dog collar and lead for the next one ^_^_

_**Carolin:**__ He is not a sex slave! Let him have his dignity!_

_**Jack:**__ See? She gets me!_

_**Kate:**__………you're plotting dirty, dirty, naughty things for the next few chapters, aren't you?_

_**Carolin**__: (cackles)_

_**Jack:**__ Oh boy…actually…this might be fun. (grins)_


	16. Afterwards, there's Coffee and Cake

_**Kate's Note:**__ You asked for it, you're getting it. There's smut in this chapter_

_**Jack:**__ Finally!!_

_**Kate:**__ It's SHORT but it's there. After all, smut is nice…_

_**Jack:**__ VERY nice_

_**Kate:**__ (ignoring him) but plot's important too._

_**Jack:**__ So, wait…I don't get a description of how good I look naked? Nothing graphic?_

_**Kate:**__ I'm not changing the story's rating just to spend three pages talking about how you and Ianto look naked. Everyone who's seen 'Adrift' knows already._

_**Jack:**__ Mean._

* * *

"You know, you don't have to do the dishes, Ianto. You're a guest in my house, you can chill out"

Rio was more than a little bit amused to find the Welshman in an apron and washing up gloves at a sink full of hot sudsy water, it was a scene she would probably have paid good money to see if it was Ellandanen – especially since the apron was hers, one she'd manipulated to be a copy of the aprons from her parents' coffee shop (it had once been plain white but was now green with 'Corner Café' written in bold white letters)

His washing-up gloves were pink and had a pattern of little black omegas.

Rio's mouth ticked, trying to keep a laugh in. "Seriously, put down the gloves and step away from the sink."

Ianto put the gloves neatly on the draining board, took off his gloves and placed them neatly into a 'Danen-esque pile . The elf and the agent, it was a combination that only made each other neater.

"Good day with Matthew?" the reaper-girl asked conversationally, hopping up with a gymnast's ease to sit on the black granite work surface about 2 feet away from Ianto

"Excellent! Went flying, it was the most wonderful thing I've done in ages. Unimaginable freedom!" Ianto was poised to start gushing into waxing lyrical about the joys of flight.

"Great!" she grinned, then seemed to remember something, "I've a visitor in the living room and I'm going to make the coffee, d'you think you could keep him company for a bit? Please?" she gave him her most appealing look

"This had better not be the cat girl again. She doesn't stop talking."

"I said 'him' " she pointed out, "please do this for me? He's someone really important"

Ianto wondered if 'Danen had invited someone from the Council over, and this incited him to fuss with his suit again.

"Don't fuss, just go. I'll see you in a bit," Rio hopped off the counter and gave him a light push…then vanished the apron from him to her hand and pushed again.

"Living room"

"I would've folded that..."

Ianto resigned himself to entertaining whatever visitor 'Danen had invited and went off to the living room, putting on his best smiley work persona.

Said guest was standing with his back to Ianto, apparently inspecting a painting of an elfling on the far wall…when Ianto had first seen it, he'd assumed it was Riaden, but it had turned out to be Ellandanen, much to his surprise.

Most paints disintegrated over that length of time, but there again most paints weren't made by elves.

"It's not bad, huh?" the guest said…in extremely familiar tones

"J-ack?"

That was not what he had expected. Not in the least bit. Was his suit right? Did he have suds in his hair? Did it matter?

Jack turned…and pounced.

"Nice to see you," he continued from his position above a now prostrate Ianto, "you look good" he ended this sentence by nuzzling the Welshman affectionately before he kissed him deeply.

Ianto forgot everything, had he still been breathing, he would've forgotten that also.

It'd been too long, longer than either of them had gone without since they got together.

There was no world outside the living room right now, just each other and, eventually, cool-warm-warmer-so hot skin against skin and lustful moans which were almost illegally erotic.

_Missed you…need you…want you…loveyouloveyouloveyou…NOW!_

They lay holding each other and catching their breath in the aftermaths, tired and slightly sticky but happier than either had been for a while; basking in the afterglow.

* * *

How long they lay on the thick soft beige and green carpet, neither of them was too certain.

"How did you get here?" Ianto asked finally, not moving an inch from where he was quite happily lying with his head against Jack's chest, the man's arms wrapped securely around him.

"I walked from the river"

"The river…around Avalon?"

"Yeah, fell off the bridge - well, I was pushed, actually."

Ianto blinked, "Pushed? By who?"

"Rio, by mistake, I don't think she knew where the temporary rift led exactly"

The Welshman considered this, "so…she brought you here…for me?"

"I think 'Danen had a hand in it."

"I don't know whether to thank them," Ianto held onto Jack tightly, "or be cross for them doing it without telling me"

"Well, they told me. I expected that they'd have told you too, but then Rio said she wanted to surprise you. They didn't tell me about the border patrol though."

"Oh… you met Dim and Dimmer then"

"If this place ever gets invaded, the enemy will die of bureaucracy"

"I noticed. And I thought WE had a lot of red tape. There seems to be a form for everything, even the strangest things"

"Like whether I was going to douse myself in fuel, and run around on fire in burning buildings"

There was a paused, "Are you likely to-?"

"No, Ianto, no. And if I were that crazy I probably wouldn't be premeditative enough to fill it out on a form"

"Just a thought," Ianto smiled to show he was only teasing. They lay for a bit longer.

"We should get dressed," he said finally

"As we're in somebody else's living room, that would probably be a good idea, yes."

The Welshman kissed Jack briefly before he began groping around for his own clothing - a dark suit he'd bought for himself and modified by concentrating, as he'd been taught

Somewhere the other city, a tall blonde elf had just told a short blonde elf woman about a human appearing from nowhere and falling in the river, and coming out, wet and bloodied but apparently not too badly injured, and gossip was spreading.

It wouldn't be too long before it reached the council's ears…not to mention the ears of Ellandanen

Inside the house, however, it was much calmer and the scent of coffee was reaching the living room.

Rio had at least been honest about that - there WAS coffee. And by the smell of it, cake also.

When the two men reached the kitchen, she was poking said cake, (quite honestly it was likely that it was a coffee cake,) with a skewer to see if it was cooked through and singing softly to herself in Portuguese.

Ianto became immediately self-conscious, and was trying to make sure he didn't look, stand or smell as if he'd just been making like rabbits on speed with Jack. Although Rio had undoubtedly heard - although there was always the possibility she had spent six years of her time in some war zone while they'd been screwing on the living room carpet.

"Mugs in the cupboard on the left," she told them without look up from prodding the cake, likely having heard their footsteps, "Jack, I suggest you take a shower when you're done, I'll even put your clothes through the wash if you want. There's a guest bathroom the next floor up on the left, towels in the airing cupboard right next door to it."

"Is that coffee cake?" Asked Ianto

"Coffee and chocolate," she answered, apparently satisfied it was completely cooked through, "been out of the oven for 5 minutes. Used to make it for my parents Coffee Shop when I was old enough to use the oven by myself"

Jack headed for the guest bathroom, taking in Rio and Ellendanen's house as he went. It was all high ceilings, wooden walls and appeared to have trees as integral structural components.

A white plastic-coated baby-gate stood juxtaposed against the Elvin decor at the foot of the stairs, and there was a white smoke-alarm nestled in amongst the vines and leaves carved into the wooden ceiling like the egg of a very strange bird.

Someone (i.e 'Danen) had tried to paint it to match the wood, but this hadn't really worked and the plastic had only been turned off-white rather than a matching shade.

It seemed to him that Rio was, very slowly, turning the place from a single elf's home to a mixed-race family's home, using her experience of being human to add touches around.

Like the baby gates and the fire alarm.

The bathroom when he found it was surprisingly like that of a human home, in that it was tiled, ceiling to floor except that he was quite certain that the tiles and mirrors were real crystal and the bath seemed to be marble.

Again, it was understatedly elegant. Like the rest of the place

He found that Elfin soap smelt of strawberries and the shampoo like sage and rosemary, quite nice really; very 'back to nature'.

Jack made good use of the shower function…it was awesome to have a proper wash after months in a sludge filled silage pit that was masqueraded as a shower

It had only been on taking off his shirt had he realised what being used as a giant stamp and then dragged through the streets by Rio's dog had done to it. It needed more than washing. It had snagged in several places.

He wondered if it was possible to get a replacement or if Ianto or Rio could fix it for him…he'd ask AFTER he'd washed off months of filth from the rust bucket

Even the water washing off him was rusty. He pondered briefly the fate of Rio's drains, but decided there were probably spells the nerd used to clean them or something.

Jack luxuriated for almost 45 minutes under the hot water of the shower, relishing the feeling of being totally clean for the first time in months before deciding he needed to get out before his skin got pruney…that just left him with the question of what was he going to wear downstairs since it seemed his clothes had vanished…he put that down to either or both of the reapers downstairs.

However, he did find a dressing gown conveniently hung on a hook on the back of the door. It was leaf green and had something monogrammed onto a pocket, though he was damned if he could read it.

The dressing gown was slightly too long but at least it was warm and smelt clean, plus it meant he wasn't naked wandering around a strange place..

It was ridiculously snuggly. It was as if someone had distilled clouds, teddy bears and kitten fuzz into a dressing gown.

When he left the bathroom, he could smell the coffee again, that led him back to the kitchen where both Rio and Ianto were sat at the table, mugs off coffee and a slice of the cake each, chatting amiably as if they'd known each other for decades rather than…days? Hours? Minutes? he was never certain of reaper-time

"Hey guys," he greeted finally, "any chance there's coffee left or did you two caffeine addicts drink it all?" he teased.

"We drank it all just to spite you," Rio deadpanned

"haha, very funny."

"You know you love me really," she grinned, "course we saved you some…but only because Ianto made me"

Ianto nodded and gestured to a mug set near his own, it was sitting beside an empty plate but the cake was in the middle of the table so it seemed he was supposed to just help himself to that

"Sit down," the Welshman invited, even pulling out the chair beside him, "Rio was telling me that apparently the library Ellandanen runs has some books by her…but they only exist in this library because she never had the chance to write them"

"So, 'Danen's helped her write them now she's dead?"

"No," Rio answered, "the books exist because they already existed in potential. I would potentially have written them if I hadn't had my little accident. Apparently I have three, two on psychology and one about coffee. There's probably books by yourself and Ianto there too"

"I wouldn't write a book..."

It wasn't that Jack didn't have enough material, it was rather the opposite - he had seen too much of the world, been too much of the worst parts, and didn't feel he could write anything that wasn't already clearly visible on the faces of people the universe over.

However great his ego could be, he did not want to write an autobiography. It was probably _because_ of his ego, because to write the truth - and that's one thing he'd want to do - would mean admitting to the shameful things in his life, things he'd prefer kept in obscurity.

"I wouldn't think your books would be autobiographical, Jack," the reaper-girl said, before nibbling some of her slice of cake, "you're more the type to make money off a nom-de-plume by writing Gay Erotica,"

Jack, for once, didn't have a comeback. He hadn't actually thought of doing that, but now that she mentioned it, he probably could write something good enough, well, graphic enough, to give him an income.

He paused - he'd just realised that she'd read his mind again. it was getting frequent enough now that he didn't immediately notice it.

"Sorry, you're in close proximity to me," Rio apologised, cutting Jack a generous slice of the still warm chocolate and coffee cake, "and reading your terribly complicated mind in an attempt to understand you is a bit of a habit. I'll stop"

Ianto nodded, he wasn't quite so good at mind reading yet, but he'd caught snippets of Jack considering the notion of writing

"As long as I don't end up as a main character," he joked, "you can write away, Jack"

"Can everyone here read my mind?"

"Just me and Ianto," Rio answered with a shrug, "Ianto's still learning but I've been doing this long enough to be able to turn it on and off at will. It's supposed to be used for helping to calm down a client"

"Does that mean that unnerving non-clients is the opposite of its official use?"

"Yes, but most clients stay dead. Not everyone's immortal, Jack"

"I'm not sure if immortal's the right word. I've been thinking about it, and immortal means cannot die - I've died a lot, so..."

"Look, here's how it works. You're my client. Have been since the first time you died, officially, you're on my list so I'm able to read your mind to best know how to calm you down if it comes as a shock. However, you've never made the transition from dead to spirit, you go back. But because you keep dying, you're still on my list so I can still read your mind"

She pointed to Ianto who seemed to be mentally taking notes on this, "Ianto can hear you because I'm training him, that means he has to come with me on jobs soon to start learning the ropes, in a way, we're connected but not in a creepy 'telepathic twin soul mate' way, that'd be wrong even by Heaven's standards"

Jack agreed that it would be creepy

Ianto poured him some coffee, "Welcome to the world of Reaping," he told him dryly, "It's interesting at any rate"

Jack drank his coffee. "Can we go and see the city later?"

"Sure," Rio nodded, "once 'Danen comes home and the baby's been fed. Avalon at night is something of a glorious sight"

"Does it glow?"

Both reapers nodded

"Sun storing crystals," Ianto said, having picked up that gem (no pun intended) of information from Ellandanen

"Ah, chemical photoluminescence - lovely"

They didn't have to wait much longer for Ellandanen to come home, he was getting much better at the whole 'home before Rio goes to bed' thing, mostly because Riaden would start crying with hunger and tiredness around 6pm

They heard the door open and close, followed by a cry of: "Maaaaaaah!" that sounded as if it came from the mouth of a very young child

"We're in the kitchen," Rio called cheerfully

"Riaden?"

Rio nodded, "my baby" she said with a small smile

After a few minutes of Rio and 'Danen feeding and settling Riaden, 'Danen sat at the table, and Rio sat holding a sleepy Riaden - but not sleepy enough not to gurgle contentedly every now and again.

The 'married' pair whispered to each other briefly before they nodded together.

"OK, 'Danen has a proposition," Rio began, "and Jack, wipe the look off your face, it's not that kind of proposition"

"I said nothing!"

"I can read you like an open book, Harkness," the reaper-girl moved her son upwards to let him rest against her shoulder, "'Danen, tell them"

"Having discussed things with Kiera this afternoon, I have decided to minimise the use of my old apartment under the library for storage, and offer it to you as a residence, on the condition that you assist me clear it out and pay a minimal rent."

"A flat…really?" Ianto asked, surprised but pleased. He had been thinking of finding somewhere else (not that there was anything wrong with Rio and Ellandanen's house, but he did feel the need for his own space)

"The library has extensive cellars of its own without using my old place as a store-room out of the convenience of access, and anyway, it was designed as a residence. Kiera doesn't want it as she refuses to live underground - a catfolk thing, apparently - and it is currently pointlessly empty, so yes."

"Yes, yes I'd like that," the Welshman nodded almost too eagerly, then blushed as the thought of seeming too keen to leave crossed his mind. He squeezed Jack's hand, Jack squeezed back gently

"For tonight you can stay here," Rio told them, "and well, however long it takes to clear the old flat…lots of good memories in there actually," she said thoughtfully…'Danen's response was to blush slightly.

"You're actually willing to have me in your house?" Jack joked with a raised eyebrow

"I just like to keep you where I can see you," she responded loftily, "lest you bolt off and get yourself killed again…or join another travelling show where you let them shoot you," she pulled a face and mumbled something about being 'back and forth every five minutes back then'

It would have been nice had this relaxed and happy state been able to continue.

It would have.

Sadly, with every job there is unpredictability

With unpredictability comes panic

And with Panic comes 'Someone Needs to Clean this Up'

Thus came about Ianto's first true day on the job.

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ I'm going to keep this one short, the next chapter's going to have hints of gore and death (naturally, it's about reaping) but we're going to try and make up for it later, I promise_

_**Jack:**__ Am I in the next one?_

_**Kate:**__ You start your journey. That's all I'm going to say._


	17. A Bad Day becomes a Good Night

_**Kate's Note:**__ Here we are, another chapter for you. I'm sorry we've kept you waiting but Carolin and I both got attacked by the dreaded Real-Life Monster_

_**Jack:**__ and you didn't call me in for that because…÷_

_**Kate:**__ You weren't the first person who came to mind._

_**Jack:**__ That hurts._

_**Kate:**__ You'd know. Do the warning and get over it._

_**Jack:**__ Fine…I'm contractually obliged to inform you guys that this particular chapter stars off with implications of gore and death and at one point it gets quite graphic. So…no children in the area, please._

_**Kate:**__ very nice, thank you, Jack_

* * *

The city was almost as much of a wasteland as the dry land that surrounded it, most of the buildings, the hard labour of people from long ago, were derelict, the survivors sheltered in them in a feeble attempt at rebuilding what had once been, trying to claim back some form of normality.

The bodies of the fallen lay scattered along with the building debris, there'd been no time to name them, to find the families that might mourn them, just a few rushed prayers, a begging for forgiveness for any of their sins and for God to grant them a peaceful afterlife.

This devastation, however, was only part of why the two reapers were there.

There were bigger fish to fry.

A finality that had to be witnessed

Sometimes, Heaven needed to know that the monsters were dead and getting what they had brought upon themselves.

There was a gallows; it was makeshift but functional; sooner or later everyone works out how to make one.

Ianto felt scared. The atmosphere was starting to get to him, he could feel that something…bad was going to happen but he didn't know what…well, who actually. He knew from the gallows what was going to happen, but he didn't know the story behind why any of this was happening and none of the souls they'd reaped were in the mood to tell him, not even after they'd been calmed down and sent on their way towards their final destination.

His question of why they were there was answered the second a man, a large man, thick with weight and health in comparison to the people who now jeered him, some cried angrily, asking what their son/daughter/husband/family had done to deserve to die.

A thud of a trap door, a creak of a rope being pulled tight, a final choking gasp…and it was over.

Rio urged Ianto to cut the spiritual cord binding the big man to his body.

Without a word, without emotion, she pushed him firmly through a sudden opening.

Ianto half stepped, unsteadied by other things than Rio shoving the soul away.

Of all the souls he had met today, there was something... more solid and rank about this one, and a cloying residue seem to hang in the air briefly before it dispersed.

"I don't know about you, but I think I'm hungry," Rio said in a voice so calm as to be unemotional as she pressed a hand against her flat stomach

This actually made him angry. There was death here, this society was in ruins, they'd escorted near hundreds of people from the mortal realm, seen a dictator die…and she was hungry?!

"How... how can you be thinking of food?"

"Why not?"

"This place makes me sick." Ianto replied rather more curtly than was anticipated.

"I don't feel anything," Rio told him quietly, "it's…it's just work now. This is what we do. But we can leave now"

* * *

It was the grey place again. Only this time it seemed to be more like a pane of glass separating them from the world.

"You're angry with me," Rio said

"The people of that town were massacred. With a combination of good luck and desperation they over threw their leader and are now sheltering in the torched ruins of what used to be their homes, probably awaiting starvation because the now dead bastard salted their fields and you don't feel anything."

"It's the only mentality that works for this job," she told him, clasping her hands almost contritely in front of her

"It's the only mentality for the job" He parroted back, "Am I really expected to suddenly loose all feeling now?"

Rio's eyes suddenly flashed almost angrily, "Don't you ever DARE even suggest that," she said in a warning tone, "Don't. You. EVER"

"It's not my suggestion, it's just the impression I get from you walking through this... this... place as if it's a shopping street - there are corpses in the road, children's corpses! And all you can say is you're hungry."

"What do you want me to say, Ianto? You want me to say that I am sad these people died? That I wish it didn't happen? Because I do. I really do, I honestly wish some divine intervention had happened and struck that complete and utter _dinheiro que cava o bastardo montado doença_ down before the ink on the first parchment he ever signed had time to dry…but it didn't happen and I can't change it. All I can do…all WE can do is make sure those people go to the right place...and that _monstro na pele humana_ got what was coming for all the suffering"

Ianto didn't need a translator, Rio spoke it with enough venom that it made it clear what was meant even if he couldn't understand the exact words.

She took a deep breath that they both knew she didn't need

"It's not that I feel nothing…anymore…but I'm good at detaching myself from the situation. Later though, later, when my son's asleep and it's just me and 'Danen…I will be crying into his shoulder…is that what you wanted to hear?"

"I.. I suppose" Ianto looked over out through the window. The sky was a perfect blue hazed with dust.

"Don't ever suggest you become unemotional," Rio put a hand on his shoulder, "I've been there. I've done it. It's not fun"

What Ianto thought, and did not voice, was that he was doing all of this for jack, he was taking a job with an emotional toll he had not really previously comprehended and was sacrificing what was supposed to be Paradise, for Jack, and he could see this becoming a one-sided level of commitment. He didn't doubt Jack's love, just his ability to really, and genuinely keep a long-term exclusive relationship.

Ianto's life, for the past week, had been equally split between training and Jack. Maybe, just maybe, there was such a thing as too much love.

"Hey," Rio pulled on the front of his suit, bringing him down so that they were nose to nose, "whatever depressing thoughts are going through your head, let them go. You're fortunate"

"Yeah, I'm not going to starve and dehydrate under the watchful eye of that sun up there, and a God that doesn't do anything when evil bastards take over."

"You're not going to have to learn to feel from scratch. You've got someone to love and who loves you. It's more than most reapers have…and you can't starve anymore"

"I can't loose faith, either and I'd rather loose faith than know God's a bastard."

"He's not a bastard."

"He lets bastards rule on Earth"

"Haven't you ever heard the saying: "All evil needs to thrive is for good men to do nothing'? Those people we crossed over, the ones higher up than the peasants, they may not have said 'yes' but they sure as hell didn't say 'no' either"

"Why, tell me, does stuff like... like that" - he gestured out of the ruin they were standing in and out into the street where a little girl lay dead in a puddle of blood in the street, nobody around to collect her, flies gathering in sightless eyes, and a more adventurous vulture hoping that the ceasefire was going to last long enough for it to get a meal. "-happen? Why didn't God say 'no'?"

"I don't know," was her answer, "I lost a lot of sleep over it when I first joined, I don't even remember when it stopped. All I can hope is that things are better there, in her heaven." the reaper-girl now seemed genuinely sad, he could read it in her body language, "the greatest of these is 'hope' she said quietly

* * *

It was a good few hours later when they arrived back at Rio's house; they were on considerably better terms once again, thanks to intervention from Azriel.

Ianto mainly remembered the angel whispering something to him, which made him feel better about the reaping thing, damned if he could actually recall what it had been, but still he now felt terribly drained and all he wanted to do was curl up in bed (Ellandanen having allotted him and Jack a spare room with an extremely large comfortable as sin bed on the second floor of the house)

"I'm sorry," Rio told him sincerely as they stood outside of said room before parting, "I'm sorry that your first day on the job was a tragedy on a grand scale and not something easier"

"It's alright…I suppose…"

"Jack," Rio knocked on the door, "come take care of your boyfriend."

Jack appeared behind Rio and Ianto, having been to use the facilities. "So, how was your day?"

"Rough first day," the reaper-girl said simply, gently pushing Ianto towards Jack, "he needs some TLC now."

Ianto meanwhile, clung onto Jack, like a drowning man to a rock.

"I've been thinking..." Started Jack.

"Did it hurt?" Rio asked, but there was very little humour in her voice, she, like Ianto, just looked drained, "I'm going to find Ellandanen. You just…be very, very nice to Ianto right now, OK? He really needs it" so saying she turned on her heel and wandered away to wherever the Elf Librarian happened to be right now.

Ianto sighed tiredly but didn't let up his hold on Jack

"I don't want to sleep," he mumbled, "not yet"

"Do you want to go sit in the garden, I'll give you a backrub?" Jack was Making an Effort. He'd had time to dwell over the past months, and come to mourn all the things he'd wished he'd done with Ianto, the things that were more about spending time together than sex. It seemed that it was only when something was lost that he learned to appreciate it.

"…Yes," he felt Ianto nod against his front, "Yes I would like that"

Ellandanen's garden was, unsurprisingly, quite large. Well kept with an understated elegance, like the rest of his home. In this instance, someone had seen fit to put a wooden bench amidst some rose bushes and lit the area with a single solar-crystal it gave the feeling of otherworldliness and privacy without needing to leave the area.

('Danen like most males of his type, had a vegetable patch, a shed and a compost bin, but he had the aesthetic taste to hide his behind a lattice screen covered in deliriously beautiful passion flowers.)

"I like this…" Ianto said as they sat on the bench and resting his head on Jack's shoulder

"There's... not much to do under Rio's watchful eye, so I came to sit out here earlier. I was reading a book 'Danen leant me."

The Welshman seemed happy enough now to sit in silence, holding Jack's hand as if afraid he'd vanish.

"What kind of book?" Ianto was glad not to be asked about how his day went, "was it one you wrote?"

"No. It's a history of this place. I asked about why the elves treat me like I've got some infectuous disease, and he thought it would explain some of it."

"Did it?"

"No, it didn't."

It explained why the culture had become so isolated, why they were so obsessed about their past, but he had barely got as far as what the Romans did, only as far as the Cataclysm, but even when it did get to the part of the Romans, it would tell of how humans, especially those of a magical persuasion, would leave their world through the same rifts as the elves, fleeing once the great Empire had proclaimed magic a sin, and then over the following centuries how various people fleeing various oppressors had found the keys to the old Faerie Gates...

Ianto listened with interest. It was an interesting history but failed to explain why elves disliked humans so intently

"I guess" said jack "It boils down to fear and jealousy."

"Hmm, interesting"

From inside the house, it was just possible to hear someone calling "Afagos agora! Afagos!" and a slight thud, through a window that was partly open…but other than that, nothing disturbed the peace outside

"Humans remind them that they're mortal, and they don't like me because they don't know I can't die, and even if they did, they wouldn't like me because they can."

Jack might have been a rash man, but he wasn't stupid.

Sometimes he was actually quite perceptive.

"So, reading aside…you're day was fine?" Ianto was finally starting to feel tired as his mind unwound from the days events. It was nice outside where everything smelt fresh and clean and earthy. He blinked a few times, Jack's shoulder was comfortable

"Kinda dull, actually. Everything's so quiet around here."

"Quiet's good right now," the Welshman mumbled sleepily

Jack started massaging Ianto's back in circles with his thumbs. "This would work better if you took that shirt off."

"Are you just trying to get me naked, Captain Harkness?" Ianto joked but complied, even though he neatly hung both his shirt and his jacket over the back of the bench

"Actually, no. You look tense. I thought you could do with a back-rub."

"I'm teasing" he moved to sit on the ground in front of Jack, feeling nicely like part of the earth, giving Jack a good view of his bare back

"There are occasions upon which I don't want to immediately drag you of to our room, and when you're obviously shattered is one of them."

He got a tired but amused chuckle in reply before Ianto took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, obviously relaxing himself

Jack looked up at the sky and hoped the weather wasn't going to change; he hadn't been there long enough to find out that the recent spate of it raining during the day was unusual for Avalon and causing the Council grave concern; but there were more important things at hand than the weather…like his boyfriend who'd had a (if he knew the reapers at all) horrific first day.

"Did... Did Rio take you somewhere horrible?"

"Yes." Ianto's answer was cold and spoke volumes about what sort of day he'd had. It sounded as if it'd been even worse than the days in Torchwood that ended up messily, "It was a public execution of dictator"

Jack guessed that Ianto first had to deal with the carnage of whatever final had precipitated the dictator's capture. Dictators rarely came quietly.

"It was just…seeing those people, some of them were crying and pleading…there were children orphaned, Jack. People whose breadwinner was gone…and then…Rio told me she was hungry, like it didn't matter. Like the carnage hadn't happened and we were in St David's Walk on a normal day" Ianto was almost shaking with emotion, making it hard for Jack to rub his back

"Ianto..." Jack tried to do an extra-snuggly back-rub "Relax, you're here now, with me, in the garden." Jack was staring into space, knowing that somewhere above the evening sky were stars, and planets, and whatever forsaken place Ianto had returned from, "For Rio that probably WAS a normal day - she's got to put up with that everyday."

Ianto was going to have to put up with it everyday too, and Jack's knowledge of that, and the guilt that came with feeling that if it wasn't for him, Ianto could have found peace, was the price Jack had to pay for it being so that evenings like this could exist, so they could sit and relax in the garden like a normal couple, and for a little while pretend that their worlds aren't continually ending and that their lives, and afterlives, could never be simple.

"That was bad," Ianto admitted, leaning back into Jack's touch, "but Azriel told me they won't all be as bad. Some people are happy to go…I hope I get more of those than the ones like today" he relaxed as the memories faded, becoming shadows instead of a gory movie projected onto the inside of his eyelids every time he blinked.

Instead he let himself concentrate on Jack's hands and how soft the grass was under him and the slight chill to the air…he was here with Jack and the world around them was, for now, peaceful and calm.

High above them the stars turned as Terra span in its eternal orbit, and closer to the ground an owl called out its first hoots of the evening. There were few places as peaceful as Avalon by dark.

* * *

Inside the house, in a particular room (for sake of argument, it was the Master Bedroom) the elfin librarian was cuddled upon as his common-law wife all but verbally demanded to be held and read to.

Rio loved it when he read to her, after a job such as the one she'd had just completed, it was one of the few things that could calm her down enough to sleep or relax at least

'Danen was wearing his glasses. He didn't actually need to wear them, but for some reason it seemed right. He was, in fact, looking over them. He only had glasses to act as magnifiers for the fiddliest jobs in the library. He probably would not have admitted this to even himself, but one could put safe bets on 'Danen hoping that the clever librarian look was an attempt to be appealing to Rio.

She did, in fact, like that look on him, but tonight wasn't going to lead to love being made, it was going to lead to reading and sleep and more cuddling.

"Read to me," she mumbled, tugging lightly on his sleeve, "anything. Even the manual on dust mote collecting would be welcome right now"

"I…could go and get that, but I returned that to its correct place on the library shelves. Anyway, I read that to you as a joke because you were badgering me."

Danen had a much better idea in mind. He'd found some poems, some human poems

"You are not leaving this bed," Rio told him, cuddling closer…much closer and they'd be sharing the sleeping shirt he was wearing… "I need you to read to me," she finished her argument by gently squeezing the tip of his ear.

"I will...I found something from Earth... and it's not 'The Hobbit'" though he had fond memories of that particular book – it had been one of the first Rio had borrowed, (having read it as a living human when she was a teenager and desiring to reread it now) when they'd first met and had spent quite a bit of time discussing the world Tolkien had written and particularly his elves.

"What've you found?"

"The poetical work of a Mr. John Keats." The elf held up a small blue battered book from 1902 with the Oxford University crest embossed into the cover.

"Wow…" Rio hadn't been a great reader of poetry when she was alive, but she knew _of _Keats, even if she didn't really know his works

'Danen smiled, opened the book to a page he had marked and began to read.

"O Solitude! If I must with the dwell, let it not be among the jumbled heap of murky buildings; climb with me the steep - nature's observatory - whence the dell, its flowery slopes, its river's crystal swell, may seem a span." The elf had two reading voices, the one for reading out statutes and minutes and motions and the official oratory of his status, and the other one he rarely shared, and it was this second one Rio was privy to.

When 'Danen read Keats the "jumbled heap" of the "murky buildings" of industrialising England's towns came alive in grim brick smoke stacks and yellow fog thick with nitrous and sulphur, and the hill rose above the gloom to a place of rural peace, and the long grass swayed in the lazy heat of summer, the same still air that kept the smoke below making the flowers shimmer in heat-haze.

Poetry, thought 'Danen, was meant to be read aloud.

'Danen, thought Rio, her mate's voice doing it work of relaxing her, and she draped an arm across his waist and rested with her had on his chest to better hear both the poetry and his heartbeat, could probably conquer Terra if he used THIS voice in public

"Let me thy vigils keep 'mongst boughs pavillion'd, where the dear's swift leap startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell"

It helped that there was a glade not to far from where they lay, in a forest beyond the hedge where 'Danen sometimes sat, shaded by trees, and where foxgloves hummed with bees, only to be dashed through by a deer unaware of the silent fae that watched, or to be, once in a while, charged through by a centaur that got a swift rebuke from said elf for disturbing the peace.

"Don't stop," the reaper-girl mumbled sleepy but happily against the elf's skin, "please"

"But though I'd gladly trace these scenes with thee," 'Danen made it sound as if "thee" could only be Rio, and Keat's sentiments could only be 'Danen's. "Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind" To 'Danen she was innocent, not in naivety, but in being free of evil.

"Is my soul's pleasure; and it must be almost the highest bliss of human-kind," One point where the elf's sentiments diverged – in 'Danen's mind this probably applied to all sentient creatures - was on the words "human-kind", but he let it pass without a pause in flow "when to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee."

"Thank you," was the last thing his wife murmured, pressing a kiss against his neck before she fell asleep. The man was, to Rio, romance personified.

'Danen, on the other hand, had decided he wanted to write a poem of his own, in English, written in spider handwriting on crisp white page shining yellow in the candlelight, and so softly, daring the nib not to scratch, he wrote as Rio slept, and tried his best to freeze a moment in ink.

And just like that, a bad day became a pleasant night.

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ romance isn't dead_

_**Jack:**__ Neither are orgies…when do I get my twincest-smut story?_

_**Rio:**__ How about 'never'? _

_**Jack:**__ You're no fun, Rio_

_**Rio:**__ I'm not going to be dragged into a story for one of your twisted fantasies._

_**Jack:**__ Your brother was all for it_

_**Kate:**__ OK, claw retraction, ladies. Be quiet so I can concentrate on the next chapter._

_Translation (Portuguese)_

_dinheiro que cava o bastardo montado doença – money grubbing diseased bastard_

_monstro na pele humana - monster in human form _


	18. Two Doors Down

_**Kate's Note:**__ I'm very truly sorry for the wait for this. I've been so busy since I started my new job_

_**Jack:**__ And dealing with annoying co-workers_

_**Kate:**__ That too. But here we are. I'd like to thank the wonderful Tylluan for the encouragement (by which I mean I was asked nicely and Tylluan posted up a new chapter of 'Cardiff 2135 AD', you should go and read it now)_

_**Jack:**__ There's more action in that story_

_**Kate:**__ You WANT me to write you back onto the scrapheap? I can do that._

_**Jack:**__ I'll be good!_

* * *

A few days had passed since Ianto's first true day as a reaper, now coming up for the weekend, Ellandanen had unearthed the key for his old flat in the library basement and Rio had offered to help empty it out – Ianto had heard Jack making a comment to her about her 'wanting to find her underwear before I find it, huh?' which had resulted in her elbowing him hard in the gut.

Other than that, it was quite calm. The flat was bigger than expected, but typically of Ellandanen, understatedly elegant, even in the stonework of the walls…despite the place being filled with boxes of alphabetised books

And it wasn't just books. There were boxes of various types and grades of paper, files of paperwork, library records of purchases and new books, spare library card application forms from several centuries previous, a stack of wooden folding chairs, posters promoting reading still in their cardboard tubes and pretty much everything else that 'Danen didn't have room for upstairs.

"He always this much of a pack-rat?" Jack asked, opening a box curiously, it turned out to be filled with what looked like collected diaries

"No information is invaluable," Rio responded, stacking up tubes of old posters

Ianto was moving the chairs from blocking up a doorway "Where are we going to put these?"

There was a small problem with emptying the flat - finding places for all its contents.

In the end the chairs were moved upstairs, and 'Danen set about arranging them carefully as extra seating in the library, and it wasn't long before people were using them.

That still left boxes and boxes of things that didn't really have a space in the library. Shelf space was finite, and 'Danen accumulated books faster than the Council granted planning permission for extensions to the buildings. The elf was usually planning another wing before the previous was even completed.

"Some of these posters are older than you are, Jack," Rio told him as she unrolled one, curiosity having got the better of her. The one in particular she was holding was written in Old Elfish. Knowing 'Danen that was probably the only reason he was holding onto it.

"Talking of old, have you seen this? And is it _supposed_ to be glowing?" Jack had found a large wooden chest, bolted securely shut, a faint blue glow escaping from where the lid met the box. It looked old enough to predate the columns and the ancient roots of the building. It also didn't look Elvish at all.

"I wouldn't touch that," Ianto said warily, he didn't like the aura coming from it.

"Never saw that when we lived down here," Rio said, but didn't make an attempt to approach the box

"I think it's probably grimoires" Added Ianto. "'Danen should probably deal with it." If the strange geometricised monsters carved on the chest were anything to go by, opening the box was a bad idea.

"Could be Pandora's Box" Suggested Jack. He'd noticed a golden fleece being used as a throw on the couch. It had been squashed under layers of boxes.

"All the more reason to leave it alone, yes?" the reaper-girl, then did a convincing double take as she looked up, "are those my knickers on the door?" she said as if to herself

"I didn't put them there" answered Jack, giving a lace doily stuck on a coat hook intrigued glances; both reapers took the opportunity to surreptitiously move the box out of Jack's way. Some things were not to be messed with and Ellandanen likely had a good reason to put it down here.

Thankfully, Jack's sometimes-short attention span was on their side, and he soon found something else to amuse him for a few minutes

"Looks like The Doctor visited Avalon! Look!" Jack had found an old newspaper, old enough to practically be dust. "I swear, it's him."

"Let me see?" Rio held out a hand for the old article, the picture showed an old man in a blue velvet suit and a frilled cravat at his throat.

"Interesting dress sense," Ianto said, looking over her shoulder

"Says the man in the suit," she teased gently, "I can't say I know him, this is dated before I came here. 'Danen might remember though…is that him there?" she pointed to the pre-teen elfling in the grainy black and white photo

Ianto read the caption. "It isn't - it's his nephew - the bloke who runs the coffee shop."

Rio peered more closely, summoned up her glasses and looked again, "oh right, very similar looking to him…in which case, 'Danen will definitely remember"

The article got put to one side as they continued cleaning up

It turned out that spiders in Avalon turned out to be about the same size as spiders in the Amazon, but could actually be convinced to leave quietly - rather Jack and Ianto did it as it turned out Rio was arachnophobic; a few more hours and the flat was liveable again, 'Danen even showed up with Riaden strapped securely to his front and a tray of tea and muffins in a spare hand.

"I thought you might want refreshments".

"Thank you," Ianto said gratefully, even for a being who couldn't get thirsty anymore, he was feeling parched and still hadn't got past thinking he was hungry.

Jack, meanwhile plucked the child from the elf man's front, this was his first time of seeing the reaper-girl and the elf's baby properly and he was curious.

Riaden cooed and dribbled a bit.

"He takes after you, Rio," he said, holding the boy at arm's length

"Flurgpuh?" the elfling said obliviously

"Gets his conversational skills from his father though," she responded lightly, wiping Riaden's face with a cloth, as Ianto and 'Danen went about the serious business of pouring tea, "you're just upset he's not old enough to think you're sexy"

"Rio, I think you have me confused with those strutting peacocks in the square."

"No, I don't think so…come here you," this last part was aimed at the elfing as she took him from the immortal, "come sit with mama while everyone has something to drink"

"The tea's not bad," Ianto told them, already having started on his own drink (The dust got everywhere, it very uncomfortable to have dust in your throat)

"Not the same as human tea."

'Danen looked askance. "They make tea from humans? - is that not cannibalism?"

"That's not what I meant..." Started Ianto in response before he figured this was 'Danen's sense of humour. Or at least attempted sense of humour.

"I'll have to remember to buy some teabags the next time I'm on Old Earth, or maybe I'll buy some Weasel Coffee" the reaper-girl said from where she was sat on a remaining box, between Ellandanen, on an old and faded but comfortable high backed chair, and Jack, who'd taken up residence on what looked like a footstool; holding the elfling firmly on her lap with one hand and drinking tea with the other, "it's looking much better in here, isn't it?"

Ianto had thought it fairly big before the boxes were removed, but now that they had virtually all gone and the space was cleared, it was actually quite remarkable how large the elf's old apartment was.

"If these walls could talk," Jack said with a somewhat leery grin, "They'd say: Shhhhhh …and it'd echo quite a bit"

When the library was built, Avalon had no shortage of space and no shortage of materials, so a large apartment had been seen as no extravagance, but times had changed, and the elves, as longievitous as they were, had slowly increased in numbers until there was pressure for space within the enclave.

Ianto was very lucky not be being charged rather high rent for such a place.

"Memories, huh, 'Danen?" Rio said sweetly to her librarian, "I slept in here the first night we met, you were too polite to make me sleep on the sofa," she looked to Ianto, "seeing him all cramped up on the sofa, well, it'd just melt your heart"

Ellandanen twitched

"I think he's blushing," Ianto said, looking carefully at the elf, after a few Terra-weeks of living with him, Ianto had started to pick up on Ellandanen's body language, the man barely went pink when blushing, he'd found

Well, not for minor blushing. Anything REALLY embarrassing turned him the most ridiculous shade of puce.

"Sorry, meu coração," Rio apologised, "didn't mean to embarrass you too much" (trans: she called him 'my heart' )

Riaden broke any awkwardness by managing to grab Jack's cake - or rather, by sticking little fingers into it as he was about to eat it

Jack sighed and gave a look of consternation. "Fine, have my cake. You've put holes in it now."

"Don't be such a baby, Jack," Ianto smiled teasingly, "I'm sure his hands are clean. Or maybe you could just share it with him?"

"Is he actually old enough to eat cake?"

Ianto suddenly found himself with crumbs in his hair where Riaden threw what was stuck to his fingers at him. (Babies seem to have this throwing stuff phase)

"Honey, no no, that's naughty," Rio chastised the boy softly, "we don't throw things at people," she looked at Jack, "he's only been around you a few days and already he's picking up bad habits" but the words only held teasing

"Is it national 'tease Jack day'?" Jack eyed Riaden warily, expecting cake-based missiles.

That got a laugh, even Riaden laughed but likely only in reaction to everyone else as young children do.

As soon as the tea was drunk and the cakes eaten, it was late afternoon and the flat was mostly emptied out - at least it was liveable now

"So, Ianto, what are you going to do with the place?"

"I don't know…aside from finish dusting it, I don't think there's much to do…except maybe I'll paint the walls cream"

The flat was, in and of itself, quite well decorated anyway and the furniture was quite sturdy and comfortable if antique and in some cases slightly faded.

There was, though, a complete lack of cushions, crockery, cutlery, coffee, kettle, towels, bedding... All the useful things of life had moved with the elf back to his house in the suburbs. Except for a single doily and a lonesome tin opener.

(The tin opener was there on account of Avalon not having tinned food and had been an item of interest Ellandanen had picked up on a visit to Old Earth.)

"And umm…" Ianto continued, "maybe get some appliances and other things," he paused thoughtfully, "actually, can I just make those? Like we do with clothes?"

Rio looked thoughtful, "things like curtains are easy enough, if you've a base material…appliances though…I've never tried"

Jack listened and thought. "If you had a broken... let's say washing-machine, could you guys fix it by magic?"

"That could work, potentially, all the components would be there already, so you wouldn't actually have to create anything, just concentrate on fixing what's broken"

"Then what you need is a broken washing machine and a repair manual"

"And I know for a fact that my elf here," Rio leaned over slightly and rested her head on her husband's shoulder affectionately, "has a manual for practically everything in the library"

"Is it true that the library has several wings that exist in their own private universes because the council's not giving you planning permission to build more?" Jack asked with a titbit of information he'd picked up from overhearing gossips in Avalon's various cafes and inns.

"Not exactly - but we employed an architectural mage to design the last extensions and alter the building, so it is now considerably larger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"Like the Tardis?" Ianto said curiously, "I've heard that's similar"

"Having never been in said 'Tardis', I don't know, but such magical architecture is not impossible and has definitely been done else-where - usually in Draconic buildings - but is rare as the knowledge is very clandestine - the Guild of Architects is a very secretive society - and even I don't have books on it. Being this exclusive, the mages who are masters of said techniques can charge rather a lot. The library had to sell some of its most prized assets to the Imperial Library in Kataka to pay for it." 'Danen looked wounded at the last sentence.

"I'm sorry," the welshman said earnestly and Rio gave Ellandanen a kiss on the cheek to cheer him up slightly, "you mean things like the oldest books?"

"Documents relating to the Cataclysm, pre Cataclysm texts even..." It was rather evident that parting company with said documents had been rather painful. "The Empress even requested translations of certain... things." There was one particular letter that had caused an awful lot of trouble indeed.

"You know Empresses?" now Ianto was truly interested…he'd never officially met any royalty, and wasn't exactly a monarchist but he was still interested to know that a librarian had dealings with an 'empress', it was a much more important-sounding title than 'queen'

"I have had dealings with the Alliance that has precipitated dealings with her Imperial Majesty, yes. Avalon, of course, does not have a monarchy, and we consider such government backward and primitive, but Catriona's nice and although we would rather not see absolute power invested in one person, there is the Alliance who would keep her in check if it ever came to that, and the fact that Catriona is far too nice to ever be a tyrant."

"Nice lady," Rio chimed, "Cares about her kingdom and the surrounding ones. She's very pretty too"

"Is she an elf too?"

"No, Jack, she's a cat-woman'

Jack did not say what he was thinking but rather asked a geographical question. "Does that mean that the catgirls have an Empire? - I haven't seen any around here - are they quite far away?"

"You haven't met Kira?"

"She usually buried under a stack of books"

"She's supposed to be manning the front desk - she's what do they call it - a "people person"." Danen Retorted '

"I've barely met her," Ianto pointed out, "and I've been here longer than Jack has"

"I will have to have words - if she is not greeting and directing readers, then she's not doing what she's supposed to be."

"'Danen…" Rio said softly, a very small hint of warning in her tone, "I'm sure it's just an oversight on her part"

'Danen looked slightly frustrated. "I hope so."

"So…bedding?" Ianto said, trying to move back to the question of outfitting his new flat, "I at least need that for now"

"There's a very good shop for that sort of thing on the intersection between Horizontal Avenue and 7th"

"But if you really need it now…" Rio passed the dozing elfling to his father and opened a cupboard; producing a dustsheet, "try changing that. It'll do until you can get to the shop"

"Ok - I could do with the practice anyway."

She passed it to him and reminded him: "think about what you want it to be…it's a big sheet, it could probably make pillows and a blanket from it, you'll also need to think about fabric. Like when you alter clothes"

Ianto held it and concentrated, staring at it intensely, it changed colour a few times, at one point turning accidentally pinstripe, and then settled on cream, and then turned cream with a pretty brown geometric design at one end.

"Silk," Jack announced, touching the fabric, and giving a sexy-leery grin, "I like it"

Somebody in the room muttered "One track mind" under the breath.

'Danen looked up at the still rather dusty clock on the wall.

This being 'Danen's clock, it had several dials, some for other measurements (Days of the week, phases of the moon, year) and more dials for other locations e.g Kataka, Safira and London'.) But the dial he was looking at was the big enamelled one that read local time. "Time for 'Riaden's afternoon nap."

Rio sighed but it was an affectionate sound, she didn't bother to point out to Ellandanen that Riaden was already sleeping. She did find it adorable that the librarian insisted on trying to keep Riaden to a sort of schedule, so she didn't argue.

"Come on then, we'll take him home," she stood and gently put the sleeping elfling into the holder on Ellandanen's front, "You two," she said to Jack and Ianto, "Have fun. Oh and Jack, if you DO find any of my knickers, they're not keepsakes for you."

"Thank you for your help" Said Ianto to a departing Rio and 'Danen.

"Anytime," Rio grinned and Jack feigned a hurt look at the suggestion of holding onto underwear, "See you"

And just like that, they were gone…………leaving Jack and Ianto completely and totally alone in their own space

This time it was Ianto who pounced Jack; they landed on the sofa, being elfin design it was large enough to accommodate both of them.

Clothing was removed almost instantly, skin against skin, dripping with sweat and warmth, the fleece beneath them was unbelievably soft and it added to the excitement, there were kisses where they forgot to breathe and once more everything boiled down to something that could only be translated as 'good' by the primal parts of the brain.

Ianto, surprisingly, gave Jack an obvious lovebite, making Jack wonder, afterwards, if he had vampiric tendencies and if all the reapers reacted this way…however, one thing hadn't changed: his Welshman still loved to cuddle afterwards and Jack had never seen the need to deny him that (truthfully, he liked it too)

After 2,000 years of chaos and betrayal Jack was looking seriously like he'd actually managed an emotional commitment to another. Survival had brought out the worst in Jack and it looked like immortality might bring out the best.

"Love you" Ianto mumbled against his neck, holding on tightly, almost as if he thought Jack would vanish once he let go

'Love me to death - if you keep strangling me'

"Sorry," he could help but chuckle as he loosened his grip on Jack, "you'd come back, eventually"

"That's not quite the point, is it?"

Ianto only answer was to kiss him

Jack kissed back and pulled Ianto further onto him and not too long afterwards they got lost into that sweetest of oblivions known as 'sleep'

* * *

_**Kate's Note:**__ There should be more action in the next chapter_

_**Jack:**__ I'm offended that you think I'd want to keep Rio's panties._

_**Kate:**__ So if I told you there were some of her undies in the dryer right now…?_

_**Jack:**__ …………which way is your dryer?_

_**Kate:**__ Thought so (giggles)_

_**Explanations and Translations**_

_Meu coração - 'My Heart' (Portuguese)_

_Weasel Coffee - Actually something I heard about from Si and Dave's cookery programme (aka The Hairy Bikers) Apparently there's a weasel that eats coffee beans, or the cherries they come from, they only eat the best ones, and…well, nature does its work and someone follows it around and picks through. They wash them thoroughly, rest assured. It's supposed to be very good. You can get Elephant Coffee too._


End file.
